The UAE will use its coming seat on the UN Security Council for a broader diplomatic push to reduce regional tension, the country's UN ambassador Lana Nusseibeh said on Thursday.
Ms Nusseibeh spoke with The National before a UN General Assembly vote on Friday that will select five nations to serve on the Security Council for two years, starting next year.
The UAE is running unopposed.
She said the Emirates would use its seat at the world’s top table to push for women’s rights, fight climate change and terrorism, and reduce tension in the region, including building bridges with Iran.
“UAE foreign policy has very much prioritised de-escalation, political diplomacy with Iran and with other regional contexts in the last few years, and I think you're going to see an acceleration of that foreign policy trajectory in the coming period,” Ms Nusseibeh said.
The 193-nation UN General Assembly will vote on which five countries will hold Security Council seats for a two-year term starting on January 1, 2022.
The UAE, Albania and Brazil are all but guaranteed to win seats as they are the only candidates from their regions.
Ghana and Gabon are set to take the two African seats after the Democratic Republic of the Congo withdrew from the race.
Brazil has served on the council 10 times, Gabon and Ghana three times each, and the UAE once, in 1986-1987. Albania has never served on the council.
The UAE’s journey back to the council has been years in the making.
Its candidacy was endorsed by the Arab League in 2012 and by the UN group of Asia-Pacific nations last year.
Candidate nations in uncontested seats still seek high vote tallies on election day and spend months rallying friends and allies.
Ms Nusseibeh called it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity” for the Emirates to “shoulder responsibility on the council for the myriad challenges globally we’re facing”.
The UAE, one of a dwindling number of countries to have good relations with both the US and China, has pitched itself as a mediator in a polarised world where co-operation is badly needed.
This week’s vote comes amid headline-grabbing initiatives by the UAE, which has in recent months established diplomatic ties with Israel and launched a Mars probe, is hosting the world fair in Dubai in October and is bidding to host major climate talks in 2023.
“It fits the moment of where the UAE is today on the international stage,” Ms Nusseibeh said.
The UAE has moved to newer offices to host its bigger diplomatic mission to the UN in New York.
More than half of the team will be women, Ms Nusseibeh said, including herself and one of her deputies.
The 15-nation council has 10 seats for temporary members but is dominated by its five permanent (P5) members – Russia, China, the US, Britain and France – which hold the power of veto.
The council meets regularly on threats to international peace and security, and makes the ultimate decisions on resolutions imposing international sanctions, authorising use of military force and launching peacekeeping missions.
Its case file includes Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Lebanon, Ukraine, Ethiopia, North Korea and other hotspots, as well as the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Iranian weapons programmes.
To be adopted, council resolutions need at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes from permanent members.
The council is often deadlocked on issues where the permanent members disagree, such as Syria, Myanmar and Ukraine.
It has been criticised for failing to act quickly in a crisis, notably during months of gridlock last year as Covid-19 crossed borders and as the US under president Donald Trump sparred with China over the origins of the pathogen.
Ms Nusseibeh said the UAE would use its networks to push for consensus in the chamber.
"We do have excellent relationships with the P5 members but also the other members who will be on the council with us, and we think that we can use those good relationships to be a part of a constructive conversation," she told The National.
Regionally, the UAE will seek to promote stability, including when it comes to Iran.
As US President Joe Biden has pushed to revive a flagging 2015 nuclear deal with Iran and other world powers, Saudi Arabia and other US allies in the Gulf have sought to engage diplomatically with Tehran.
“With Iran, with other players in the region, what you’ve seen over the last several years is the growth or the deepening of a trust deficit … and I think we have to start building up the credit in the trust levels,” Ms Nusseibeh said.
“We want to live in a prosperous, stable region, and we don’t want to see the region in a state of conflict.”
She said the UAE would take a “measured” approach on the council when dealing with Iran amid talks over reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, under which Tehran agreed to put curbs on its nuclear programme in return for the lifting of international sanctions.
Mr Biden wants to restore the deal, abandoned by his predecessor Mr Trump, despite concerns among Washington’s Arab allies that it did not do enough to deter Iran’s other destabilising activities in the Middle East.
“We are open to hearing about any constructive solution that, yes, curbs Iran’s ballistic missile programme, or any country’s ballistic missile programme; that definitely decreases or ends with accountability any country's funding of external militias around the region,” Ms Nusseibeh said.
The UAE may also use its influence with a new partner, Israel, to help the council address a decades-old agenda item: the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians, she said.
The UAE last year became the first Arab country in many years to formally establish ties with Israel.
The move was criticised by some Palestinians but was described by the UAE as an effort to stop the Israeli annexation of Palestinian land.
“The bilateral relationship … does give us another avenue for influence,” Ms Nusseibeh said. “We cannot be in a continuation of cycles of violence in this conflict.
"There needs to be a two-state solution that ends the conflict, that allows the region to live in peace and prosperity, that brings Israel into the region as a mutually respected partner.”
The UAE was also preparing to push the council to take more action against climate change and terrorism, and to ensure women play a bigger role in peacekeeping missions and are better protected in war zones.
“You cannot look at what is happening around the world, whether it's food insecurity, water scarcity, or countries literally fearing their existence might end because of the impacts of climate, and not have a conversation about it at the top table of peace and security,” Ms Nusseibeh said.
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Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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Company name: Farmin
Date started: March 2019
Founder: Dr Ali Al Hammadi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: AgriTech
Initial investment: None to date
Partners/Incubators: UAE Space Agency/Krypto Labs
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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A Cat, A Man, and Two Women
Junichiro Tamizaki
Translated by Paul McCarthy
Daunt Books
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A general guide to how active you are:
Less than 5,000 steps - sedentary
5,000 - 9,999 steps - lightly active
10,000 - 12,500 steps - active
12,500 - highly active
AndhaDhun
Director: Sriram Raghavan
Producer: Matchbox Pictures, Viacom18
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Tabu, Radhika Apte, Anil Dhawan
Rating: 3.5/5
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The biog
Name: Timothy Husband
Nationality: New Zealand
Education: Degree in zoology at The University of Sydney
Favourite book: Lemurs of Madagascar by Russell A Mittermeier
Favourite music: Billy Joel
Weekends and holidays: Talking about animals or visiting his farm in Australia
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.”
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
PREMIER LEAGUE FIXTURES
All kick-off times UAE ( 4 GMT)
Saturday
Liverpool v Manchester United - 3.30pm
Burnley v West Ham United - 6pm
Crystal Palace v Chelsea - 6pm
Manchester City v Stoke City - 6pm
Swansea City v Huddersfield Town - 6pm
Tottenham Hotspur v Bournemouth - 6pm
Watford v Arsenal - 8.30pm
Sunday
Brighton and Hove Albion v Everton - 4.30pm
Southampton v Newcastle United - 7pm
Monday
Leicester City v West Bromwich Albion - 11pm
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
SPECS
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
If you go
Flight connections to Ulaanbaatar are available through a variety of hubs, including Seoul and Beijing, with airlines including Mongolian Airlines and Korean Air. While some nationalities, such as Americans, don’t need a tourist visa for Mongolia, others, including UAE citizens, can obtain a visa on arrival, while others including UK citizens, need to obtain a visa in advance. Contact the Mongolian Embassy in the UAE for more information.
Nomadic Road offers expedition-style trips to Mongolia in January and August, and other destinations during most other months. Its nine-day August 2020 Mongolia trip will cost from $5,250 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, two nights’ hotel accommodation in Ulaanbaatar, vehicle rental, fuel, third party vehicle liability insurance, the services of a guide and support team, accommodation, food and entrance fees; nomadicroad.com
A fully guided three-day, two-night itinerary at Three Camel Lodge costs from $2,420 per person based on two sharing, including airport transfers, accommodation, meals and excursions including the Yol Valley and Flaming Cliffs. A return internal flight from Ulaanbaatar to Dalanzadgad costs $300 per person and the flight takes 90 minutes each way; threecamellodge.com
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The five pillars of Islam
