Throughout the Tunisian capital, streets have been cleaned, flags of the 22 delegations attending the summit – along with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres – have gone up to line the roads from the airport to the building where the summit will be held.
Across the country, police and soldiers have been deployed in large numbers, overseeing the week-long preparations, with ministers meeting in advance of the Summit to try to establish some form of consensus on the variety of issues facing the region.
Saudi Arabia's King Salman received a warm welcome on Friday as he arrived ahead of the summit to meet with the Tunisian government. Accompanied by a large delegation that includes Saudi Interior Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif bin Abdulaziz, Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al Assaf, Finance Minister Mohammed Al Jadaan and Commerce and Investment Minister Majed Al Qasabi, the king was welcomed by Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi.
Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, the Ruler of Fujairah, will lead the UAE delegation and join leaders from across the region to discuss a range of the issues facing the Arab World. A priority will be the recent US support for Israeli claims to the occupied Golan Heights in Syria, as well as the continued suspension of Syria from the league it helped found. Also on the agenda are developments in war-torn Libya, Yemen and Sudan, as well as Iran's growing influence across much of the region.
Also in attendance will be Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani. This is the first time the two leaders have attended the same conference since the dispute of 2017 saw Gulf states cut ties with the peninsular kingdom, accusing Doha of supporting terror groups and destabilising the region.
Several Arab leaders will not be attending for reasons of their own. As was widely expected, embattled Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika will not attend as the now six weeks of protests against his continued rule show no signs of abating. Mohamed VI of Morocco, who is hosting the Pope, will also miss the meeting as well as Egypt’s Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Also failing to make the trip to Tunis will be Sudanese leader Omar Al Bashir who is also facing mass protests against his rule His invitation sparked an outcry from rights groups within Tunisia.
While expectations for the summit are limited, a condemnation of US support for Israeli claims to the Golan Heights is widely anticipated. Referencing the administration of Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Tel Aviv’s claims to the disputed territory along the country’s Syrian border, Tunisia’s foreign minister Khemaies Jhinaoui told reporters on Friday that there would be a response.
“We will work with fellow Arab countries and the international community to contain the expected repercussions of this decision in the various regional and international forums,” he said, without elaborating further.
While the summit is not expected to lift the suspension of Syria’s membership, frozen in 2011 following the bloody crackdown on mass demonstrations that led to the now more than eight-year civil war, the US decision does at least provide the Assad regime with room for manoeuvre. “It certainly gives Assad an opening to get himself readmitted. mainly because now he can play the aggrieved party in an issue about which the Arab world is totally united,” Fred Hof, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, said this week.
While the gains for Damascus may be mixed, for Tunisia, hosting the Arab League meeting remains significant. "…the Summit at least highlights its role as a stable, centrist state with solid pan-Arab credentials," David Pollock, a Fellow at The Washington Institute, told The National. "Beyond that symbolic benefit, Tunisia may reap some modest, short-lived economic rewards from some of the wealthy Gulf guests."
With presidential elections slated for Tunisia later this year, the presence of both King Salman and Sheikh Tamim at the summit could help the 92-year old Mr Essebsi.
Further to the immediate diplomatic gains of hosting the summit, bringing such a high profile roster of Arab leaders together is also unlikely to trouble Tunisia’s campaign to secure one of the rotating seats on the UN’s Security Council. However, the still unexplained arrest of UN diplomat and Tunisian national, Moncef Kartas at Tunis Carthage airport on Tuesday evening threatens a rift with the international body that could yet damage the country’s campaign for the seat.
Beset by internal division and local rivalries, what impact the Summit may have on the region's long term development is still to be seen. "The Arab League has for a long time now been reduced to a ceremonial role as its members are bitterly divided over a number of issues, such as the conflicts in Yemen and Syria and the Qatar crisis," Lina Khatib, head of the Middle East and North Africa programme at Chatham House told The National.
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AT4 Ultimate, as tested
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Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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LIVING IN...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
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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The Outsider
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