A former Arab League secretary general lambasted the United States' peace plan for Israel and Palestine, saying it will be flawed and biased, and rejected by Arab states.
Speaking on the second day of the fifth Abu Dhabi Strategic Debate (ADSD) on Monday, Amr Moussa said the American proposal would be "biased and not giving Palestinians their rights".
Mr Moussa's comments followed US President Donald Trump's announcement that a White House proposal to end the decades-long Israel-Palestine conflict would be announced in the coming months.
“It appears that Trump wants to solve this issue and not manage the crisis. This solution presented is only an Israeli solution, because 99 per cent of the deal serves the interests of one side,” Mr Moussa said.
The diplomat said he expected Palestinian and other Arab leaders to reject Mr Trump's so-called "deal of the century" in the same way they rejected US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the opening of the embassy, cutting funds to UNRWA and expelling Palestinian diplomats from Washington.
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“I don’t believe that Palestinians, Jordanian and Egyptians will accept the deal. It cannot be a solution that can be accepted in any circumstance. Excluding Jerusalem from any discussion is a mistake,” he said.
Mr Trump’s strategy shift vis-a-vis Jerusalem overturned decades of US policy claiming the city's status would be decided only through joint Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
The US president's declaration drew universal condemnation from Arab leaders and widespread criticism elsewhere.
“What will we get in return for accepting and saying this is a good deal? Jerusalem and the issue of refugees is off the table,” Mr Moussa said. The region was “far from reaching a point where the Palestinians will accept certain policies of any deal presented to them".
Mr Moussa stressed that Arab states were committed to the idea of a two-state solution based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital.
“The Arabs have not backed down from the Palestinian issue, it is still alive among the majority of the public opinion, trade unions, tribes,” he said.
Meanwhile, US ambassador and counsellor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Dennis Ross, said that appointing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel should have been presented as part of the plan.
“We don’t know what is in the plan just yet because we haven’t seen it, my impression at this point is that Trump’s administration understands that there’s no deal that doesn’t address both sides,” said Mr Ross.
The Palestinian issue cannot be “wished” away, because it is closely tied with the stability of the region, he said.
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.”
