Iran has sent French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah back to prison from house arrest, her support group said in Paris on Wednesday, in a shock development amid delicate talks on the Iranian nuclear deal.
Ms Adelkhah was sentenced in May 2020 to five years in prison for conspiring against national security, accusations her supporters have denounced as absurd.
She was allowed home in Tehran in October 2020 with an electronic bracelet.
Ms Adelkhah is one of at least a dozen western nationals believed to be held in Iran. Activists say they are being held as hostages at the behest of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to extract concessions from the West.
With talks continuing in Vienna aimed at salvaging the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers, the French Foreign Ministry warned the move would damage bilateral relations and trust.
"It is with great shock and indignation that we have been informed that Fariba Adelkhah ... has been re-imprisoned in the prison of Evin" in Tehran, the committee set up to support her said.
"The Iranian government is cynically using our colleague for external or internal purposes that remain opaque, and that have nothing to do with her activities."
The committee accused the authorities of "deliberately endangering Fariba Adelkhah's health and even her life", pointing to the death this month in Iranian custody of poet Baktash Abtin after he contracted Covid-19.
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian complained on Tuesday that the pace of talks in Vienna is "too slow", in marked contrast to the more upbeat tone from officials in Tehran.
The French Foreign Ministry expressed "astonishment" at the reimprisonment of Ms Adelkhah, calling for her immediate release and saying the move was made with "no explanation or preliminary warning".
"The decision can only have negative consequences on the relationship between France and Iran and reduce confidence between our two countries," the ministry said.
Also being held in Iran is Frenchman Benjamin Briere. His family say he was an innocent tourist who was detained while travelling in May.
Mr Briere's family announced last month that he had begun a hunger strike to protest against his detention conditions and the lack of evolution in his case.
A specialist in Shiite Islam and a research director at Sciences Po university in Paris, Ms Adelkhah was arrested in June 2019 along with her French colleague and partner, Roland Marchal.
Mr Marchal was released in March 2020 in an apparent prisoner swap after France released Iranian engineer Jalal Rohollahnejad, who faced extradition to the US over accusations that he breached American sanctions against Iran.
Ms Adelkah's support group said she had been imprisoned "on trumped-up charges and without any proper trial".
Nationals of the three European powers involved in the talks on the Iranian nuclear programme – Britain, France and Germany – are among the foreigners being held.
Also on Wednesday, the British Council said its staff member, Iranian citizen Aras Amiri, had returned to the UK after being cleared on appeal of a 10-year jail sentence for "cultural infiltration" in Iran.
The 2015 nuclear deal – agreed to by Iran, the US, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany – offered Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its atomic programme.
But then US president Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018 and reimposed sanctions, prompting Tehran to begin breaking its commitments.
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The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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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.”
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Day 2, Dubai Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Pakistan’s effort in the field had hints of shambles about it. The wheels were officially off when Wahab Riaz lost his run up and aborted the delivery four times in a row. He re-measured his run, jogged in for two practice goes. Then, when he was finally ready to go, he bailed out again. It was a total cringefest.
Stat of the day – 139.5 Yasir Shah has bowled 139.5 overs in three innings so far in this Test series. Judged by his returns, the workload has not withered him. He has 14 wickets so far, and became history’s first spinner to take five-wickets in an innings in five consecutive Tests. Not bad for someone whose fitness was in question before the series.
The verdict Stranger things have happened, but it is going to take something extraordinary for Pakistan to keep their undefeated record in Test series in the UAE in tact from this position. At least Shan Masood and Sami Aslam have made a positive start to the salvage effort.
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