RAMALLAH // Rami Hamdallah resigned yesterday as Palestinian Authority prime minister, just two weeks after taking the post.
It was unclear whether the PA president, Mahmoud Abbas, would accept the resignation.
Mr Hamdallah's office declined to comment, but an official close to him said the decision was made because of a "dispute over his powers".
Analysts said Mr Abbas's decision to appoint Mr Hamdallah, a little-known academic with no political experience, signalled an attempt to consolidate power within the presidency.
The president's office handles diplomacy and negotiations with Israel, while the premiership focuses on day-to-day affairs in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank.
The resignation comes at a sensitive time for the PA. Economic conditions in the West Bank remain fragile and the peace process with Israel looks moribund despite recent efforts by John Kerry, the US secretary of state, to revive it.
Mr Hamdallah replaced the pro-western Salam Fayyad, who resigned after six years as prime minister.
Many credit Mr Fayyad for rooting out corruption and streamlining PA institutions, but those reforms also put him at odds with Mr Abbas and the ruling Fatah faction that he chairs.
That friction compelled Mr Fayyad, a former IMF economist, to threaten to resign on several occasions.
Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, a think tank in Washington DC, said Mr Hamdallah's appointment appeared to be an attempt by Mr Abbas to "have a weak prime minister".
The Palestinian president, who rules by decree, this month created for the first time two positions for deputy prime ministers under Mr Hamdallah.
Mr Abbas filled those positions with loyalists Ziad Abu Amr, a former PA foreign minister from Gaza, and Mohammed Mustafa.
The latter is an economic adviser to the president and chief executive of the Palestine Investment Fund.
Mr Schanzer said it "was clear that Mohammed Mustafa … had more power than the prime minister himself, who had no practical experience in running a government".
He said it "should therefore come as no surprise that Hamdallah wants out".
The position of PA prime minister was created in 2003 under pressure from the United States to weaken the powers of the president, Yasser Arafat.
Mr Hamdallah, 54, is considered to be politically close to Fatah.
He has served as president of Nablus's An Najah National University since 1998, and many credit him for expanding and improving the university's course offerings.
hnaylor@thenational.ae
* With additional reporting by Reuters
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Dr Amal Khalid Alias revealed a recent case of a woman with daughters, who specifically wanted a boy.
A semen analysis of the father showed abnormal sperm so the couple required IVF.
Out of 21 eggs collected, six were unused leaving 15 suitable for IVF.
A specific procedure was used, called intracytoplasmic sperm injection where a single sperm cell is inserted into the egg.
On day three of the process, 14 embryos were biopsied for gender selection.
The next day, a pre-implantation genetic report revealed four normal male embryos, three female and seven abnormal samples.
Day five of the treatment saw two male embryos transferred to the patient.
The woman recorded a positive pregnancy test two weeks later.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
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Analysis
Members of Syria's Alawite minority community face threat in their heartland after one of the deadliest days in country’s recent history. Read more
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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.
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“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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Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
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Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million