RAS AL KHAIMAH // Morocco’s Ahmed Marjane became the first Arab golfer to win a Mena Golf Tour event at the Ras Al Khaimah Classic on Wednesday.
One shot off the pace going into the final round, Marjane posted a three-under-par 69 at Tower Links Golf Club for an eight-under-par total of 208 that stood up as the overnight joint leaders all faded out of contention.
Marjane won the tour’s Order of Merit title as an amateur in the inaugural edition of the tour in 2011. Promotion to the professional ranks followed this year.
Wales’ Cennydd Mills had a chance to force a play-off, but missed his 10-yard birdie on the closing hole, finishing on seven-under for a share of second with England’s Stuart Archibald, Xavier Puig of Spain and Scotland’s Daniel Kay.
Kay was winner of the amateur division, two shots ahead of Morocco’s Yassine Touhami with Switzerland’s Michael Harradine taking third on two-under 214.
“I always play well under pressure. Four birdies and just one bogey on my card shows I was in control of the proceedings out there,” said Marjane, 22, who was invited to Dubai for a five-week training stint as part of the Sheikh Maktoum Golf Foundation scholarship in 2012.
“The idea was make as many birdies as possible. If I had holed all my putts from three yards, I would have easily finished 12-under.
“Being the first from the Mena region to win a tournament – it made the win just memorable.”
Meanwhile, overnight joint leader Peter Stojanovski closed with a level-par 72 to settle for third on six under along with Mexico’s Juan Salcedo and England’s Joshua White, who shot a final round 67.
UAE’s Ahmed Al Musharrekh slipped to 23rd place from joint first overnight after carding a final-round 77.
“It just wasn’t my day. Nothing worked,” Al Musharrekh said.
“But I am taking a lot of positives from the tournament. It felt good when I walked off the course after the second round to see my name atop the leader board.
“This has motivated me to work harder on my game, which I will do.”
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The major Hashd factions linked to Iran:
Badr Organisation: Seen as the most militarily capable faction in the Hashd. Iraqi Shiite exiles opposed to Saddam Hussein set up the group in Tehran in the early 1980s as the Badr Corps under the supervision of the Iran Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The militia exalts Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei but intermittently cooperated with the US military.
Saraya Al Salam (Peace Brigade): Comprised of former members of the officially defunct Mahdi Army, a militia that was commanded by Iraqi cleric Moqtada Al Sadr and fought US and Iraqi government and other forces between 2004 and 2008. As part of a political overhaul aimed as casting Mr Al Sadr as a more nationalist and less sectarian figure, the cleric formed Saraya Al Salam in 2014. The group’s relations with Iran has been volatile.
Kataeb Hezbollah: The group, which is fighting on behalf of the Bashar Al Assad government in Syria, traces its origins to attacks on US forces in Iraq in 2004 and adopts a tough stance against Washington, calling the United States “the enemy of humanity”.
Asaeb Ahl Al Haq: An offshoot of the Mahdi Army active in Syria. Asaeb Ahl Al Haq’s leader Qais al Khazali was a student of Mr Al Moqtada’s late father Mohammed Sadeq Al Sadr, a prominent Shiite cleric who was killed during Saddam Hussein’s rule.
Harakat Hezbollah Al Nujaba: Formed in 2013 to fight alongside Mr Al Assad’s loyalists in Syria before joining the Hashd. The group is seen as among the most ideological and sectarian-driven Hashd militias in Syria and is the major recruiter of foreign fighters to Syria.
Saraya Al Khorasani: The ICRG formed Saraya Al Khorasani in the mid-1990s and the group is seen as the most ideologically attached to Iran among Tehran’s satellites in Iraq.
(Source: The Wilson Centre, the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation)
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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