Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will travel to the United Nations headquarters later this month to address the Security Council on the US recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital and Israel's expansion of settlements - a rare appearance reflecting escalating tensions over peace prospects.
Kuwait's UN Ambassador Mansour Al Otaibi, the council president for February, said his government invited the Palestinian leader to address its monthly Middle East meeting on February 20 and believes it will be "important" and "beneficial" for members.
Arab foreign ministers met last month, he said, and "there is an Arab movement to push forward the peace process" and "to oppose the Israeli violations, especially those pertaining to Jerusalem and the settlements".
Mr Abbas usually attends the annual gathering of world leaders at the General Assembly in September, but his decision to speak to the UN's most powerful body is an indication of the deepening rift between Israel and the United States on one hand and the Palestinians and their Arab and European supporters on the other.
It follows President Donald Trump's announcement in December declaring Jerusalem to be Israel's capital which triggered protests and condemnation through the region and went against decades of US foreign policy and international consensus that Jerusalem's status should be decided in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
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The Palestinians have rejected any peace proposal coming from the Trump administration amid concerns it would fall far below their hopes for an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza, lands captured by Israel in the 1967 war, with east Jerusalem as its capital. Their demand for a two-state solution is supported by the UN and almost all of its 193 member-states.
That possibility appeared to be dealt a new blow when Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would retain security control over the Palestinians as part of any future peace deal.
Since taking office, Mr Trump has distanced himself somewhat from the two-state solution favoured by his predecessors for the past two decades, saying he would support Palestinian independence only if Israel agreed.
The Palestinians are also angry at the Trump administration's announcement last month that it is withholding $65 million (Dh239m) of a planned $125m funding instalment for UNRWA, the UN agency that helps an estimated 5 million Palestinian refugees. The administration also made clear that additional US donations will be contingent on major changes by UNRWA, which has been heavily criticised by Israel.
Kuwait is the Arab representative on the Security Council and as president it decides the programme of work for the month. Ambassador Al Otaibi said there were no objections among members — including the United States — to the proposed agenda.
He also announced that the council would hold an informal meeting on the Palestinians situation on February 22 and had invited former US president Jimmy Carter, former UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland and former UNRWA chief Karen AbuZayd. Such meetings are held outside the councils and members are not required to attend.
Mr Carter bridged wide gaps between the Egyptian and Israeli leaders, Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin, leading to the Camp David accords in September 1978.
Mr Al Otaibi said Mr Carter had followed the Palestinian question for a long time, his position against Israeli settlement expansion is well-known, "and we believe that he does have a role to play, he can give his opinion, and that's why we decided to invite him".
He said it was confirmed whether Mr Carter would attend, or whether Mr Abbas would stay to participate.
Last week, US Ambassador Nikki Haley accused Mr Abbas of not having the "courage" of Sadat or the late King Hussein of Jordan who made peace with Israel.
"If President Abbas demonstrates he can be that type of leader, we would welcome it. His recent actions demonstrate the total opposite," she said. "To get historic results, we need courageous leaders. History has provided such leaders in the past. For the sake of the Palestinian and Israeli people, we pray it does so again."
Meanwhile, an Israeli air strike damaged homes near Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip on Friday, Agence France-Presse reported.
There were no reports of any casualties.
The Israeli army said the strike targeted a Hamas observation post.
The strike came hours after a rocket was fired at Israel from Gaza without causing damage. Such rockets attacks have increased since Mr Trump announced his Jerusalem decision on December 6.
The rockets are usually launched not by Hamas, the Islamist group that controls Gaza, but by fringe radical groups.
However Israel holds Hamas, with which it has fought three wars since 2008, responsible for any fire coming from Gaza.
The years Ramadan fell in May
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'Ashkal'
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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.”
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
