Taliban clash with Iranian troops in 'misunderstanding' at border

Clashes broke out between Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard troops and Taliban fighters at the Afghan-Iran border on Wednesday, witnesses told The National.

While the cause of the conflict was unclear, a battle between the two groups was reportedly raging near the Kang district of Nimruz province from early in the evening.

“The Iranian forces had entered the Afghan side of the border and installed a couple of checkpoints in Kang,” a 48-year-old shopkeeper, who only wished to be identified as Ahmadullah, told The National.

“One of our village elders noticed the unprovoked invasion and took the matter to the Taliban’s district police chief here. Within 30 minutes, Taliban fighters moved their forces to the border and clashes started,” he said.

Since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August, the group has maintained a precarious relationship with Iran, often seeking its support and approval, but failing to establish strong alliances.

The two nations share a 900-kilometre border, and Iran does not recognise the Taliban government.

Ahmadullah said he saw tanks and heavy weaponry being moved to the border by the Taliban and could hear heavy gunfire and artillery for hours.

“It has stopped now, in the last hours, but one Taliban fighter told me they caused several casualties among the Iranian soldiers,” Abdullah said, adding that he saw injured Taliban fighters being transferred to the clinic in the district's centre.

Taliban spokesman Bilal Karimi confirmed the attack to ToloNews in Kabul. He said the attacks had been contained, but did not give any further details on cause or casualties.

Iranian local media reported that the clashes were caused by a misunderstanding, citing official sources. Tasnim News Agency said Iran has walls built within its territory near Shaghalak to discourage smugglers and human traffickers. It said farmers had crossed the walls but were still inside Iranian territory.

Ahmadullah, however, claimed that Iran has a history of not only breaching Afghan borders but also targeting Afghan asylum-seekers.

“Iranian forces have killed a lot of Afghans under the excuse of curbing human trafficking and drug smuggling. They are still shooting poor Afghan refugees nearly every other day,” he said.

“At some point, we will run out of patience and respond to their mischief,” he said.

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”