DOHA // The Arab League summit may have lasted just a day, but it grabbed the headlines nonetheless thanks to the tirade against Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah by the Libyan leader, Muammar Qadafi.
But for all its colour, some analysts say when the summit ended a day earlier than expected on Monday evening it lacked any significant conclusions.
Although there were calls for the Middle East to be free of nuclear weapons, concerns over Iran's nuclear programme were not dealt with explicitly. Similarly, comments on the importance of a time frame in dealings with Israel over the 2002 Arab peace initiative were not accompanied by any actual time frame.
The summit did however lead to strong backing for the Sudanese president, Omar al Bashir, who is facing an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court and whose participation in the summit was a major talking point before he flew in on Sunday. According to Mazhar al Zoby, a professor of politics at Qatar University, there was an absence of "serious, coherent and consolidated outcomes" because of rifts within the 22-member league.
"The lack of outcomes reflects the seriousness of divisions," he said.
The rift between what Prof al Zoby described as "moderate states" and "oppositional states" came to the fore in the differing responses from Arab countries following Israel's offensive in Gaza in late December, and has not been resolved by the summit.
"It is between those who see the Israeli occupation as the problem and those who see the opposition to the Israeli occupation as the problem," he said, adding that related disagreements on how to deal with Iran and the Palestinian group, Hamas, had similarly not been tackled.
"There are deep divisions that have not been reconciled," he said. "It is not surprising nothing has come out of this."
Indeed Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt, who has had differences with Qatar over its response to the Israeli offensive, and its closeness to Hamas, failed to attend the summit, although 17 other heads of state were present.
If it is to prove more effective at subsequent summits, the Arab League should focus on fewer issues and give itself achievable objectives, said Hady Amr, the director of the Brookings Doha Centre in Qatar.
"In the 64 years since the creation of the Arab League, it has accomplished disappointingly little to improve the lives and enhance the dignity of the people of the Arab world," he said.
He said the average person on the street would probably not be able to point to a single achievement of the league.
"It's not a criticism of [the Arab League's secretary general] Amr Moussa; it's a criticism of the states that have not come together to solve the common problems of the people of the Arab world.
"They have not been able to solve the national crises of Palestine, Iraq or Somalia. They have not created dignity, education or health care for the people of the Arab world," Mr Amr said.
"It's a shame. The Arab League could do so much more if, working together, the members were to select one problem and focus on it."
Not all analysts have taken such a downbeat message from this week's gathering. Ibrahim Oweiss of Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service in Qatar sees cause for optimism.
He said personal relationships between leaders that had "suffered in the past couple of years" had been improved by the summit, as shown by the meeting of Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Qadafi after the Libyan leader's outburst.
"Also, they specifically mentioned that the Arab peace initiative will not remain on the table forever and so they are searching among themselves and through the foreign ministries for what strategy if any they will be able to pursue," he said.
"That's an important point that came out of the summit."
Next year's summit is set to be held in Libya, after Iraq declined its option to host the event for what were described as "logistical reasons", but suggesting it would be ready to host the event in 2011.
Hoshyar Zebari, the Iraqi foreign minister, said "logistical reasons" was not a cover for concerns over security.
"We've reserved the right to host it, but for logistical reasons, for capability reasons, not for security reasons, we wanted to give ourselves more time," he said.
"Maybe 2010 wouldn't ensure the time to prepare the accommodation, the hotels, the facilities and so on.
"We could have hosted the summit, but not in Iraq, but somewhere else, but the feeling was that it doesn't make any sense unless you have the summit in Baghdad."
dbardsley@thenational.ae
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.”
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
Retail gloom
Online grocer Ocado revealed retail sales fell 5.7 per cen in its first quarter as customers switched back to pre-pandemic shopping patterns.
It was a tough comparison from a year earlier, when the UK was in lockdown, but on a two-year basis its retail division, a joint venture with Marks&Spencer, rose 31.7 per cent over the quarter.
The group added that a 15 per cent drop in customer basket size offset an 11.6. per cent rise in the number of customer transactions.
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