The US State Department on Tuesday announced its intent to restore humanitarian aid to the Palestinians after it was suspended by the Trump administration.
State Department Spokesman Ned Price said restoration of aid was in the US interest.
“The US does intend to restore aid to the Palestinian people. We are not doing that as a favour, but because it is in the interest of the United States to do so,” Mr Price said.
He said that the suspension of aid under the previous administration had produced neither political progress nor secured concessions from the Palestinian leadership.
The Trump administration in 2018 cut nearly $200 million in economic aid to the Palestinians and suspended another $350m in funding to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which assists hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.
Mr Price said the newly appointed deputy assistant secretary of state for Palestine and Israel, Hady Amr, had already established contact with Palestinian and Israeli officials.
Political communications between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration came to a halt in 2018 after former president Donald Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.
President Joe Biden has not called either Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since assuming office. When asked why he has not yet communicated with the Israeli leader, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, "[Mr Biden] hasn't called every foreign leader yet."
"I expect he'll continue to have additional engagements in the weeks ahead," she said.
Mr Price also said the Biden administration had not had any contact with Iranian officials.
He said the focus for newly appointed envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, is on contacts with "allies, partners and members of Congress".
“[We will be] consulting with our allies, consulting with our partners, consulting with Congress, before [we reach] the point where we're going to engage directly with the Iranians and willing to entertain any sort of proposal,” Mr Price said.
The new US administration declared its intention to return to the nuclear deal that Mr Trump abandoned in 2018, but only if Iran showed full compliance.
"The United States would do the same thing and then use that as a platform to build a longer and stronger agreement that also addresses other areas of concern", a State Department official said last week.
Later on Tuesday, the State Department announced that Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a call with Swiss President Guy Parmelin. Switzerland has played the role of protector of US interests in Iran since relations were severed in 1979 and played the role of mediator and humanitarian channel between the two countries.
“Secretary Blinken thanked President Parmelin for Switzerland’s continuing commitment as the protecting power for the United States in Iran,” the statement said. Bilateral relations and “their joint commitment to multilateralism, including on human rights, climate change and global health” were also discussed.
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.”
Men’s singles
Group A: Son Wan-ho (Kor), Lee Chong Wei (Mas), Ng Long Angus (HK), Chen Long (Chn)
Group B: Kidambi Srikanth (Ind), Shi Yugi (Chn), Chou Tien Chen (Tpe), Viktor Axelsen (Den)
Women’s Singles
Group A: Akane Yamaguchi (Jpn), Pusarla Sindhu (Ind), Sayaka Sato (Jpn), He Bingjiao (Chn)
Group B: Tai Tzu Ying (Tpe), Sung Hi-hyun (Kor), Ratchanok Intanon (Tha), Chen Yufei (Chn)
