A senior ranking member of US Congress raised fresh questions on Wednesday about the suitability of Qatar to host the Al Udeid airbase because of Doha’s failure to act against terrorist financiers.
Qatar’s role in actively channelling funds or failing to stop others sending money to banned groups should bring into question the continued major US military presence in the country, said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, chair of the subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa.
The Defense Department has consistently said it is not seeking alternatives to the base, which has hosted more than 11,000 US troops since 2002. But Donald Trump raised the prospect in an interview two weeks ago saying that ten countries would bid to host the base if the US ever decided to pull out.
“We cannot allow for our air base to be used as a means to justify this sort of behaviour,” said Ms Lehtinen, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was hosting his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani a few miles away.
“Doha’s behaviour must change the status quo, and if it does not, it risks losing our cooperation on the air base.”
She defined Qatar as only helping “to facilitate our operations at our airbase”, while “the UAE, for example, has spent 12 years with us fighting alongside in Afghanistan”.
The Republican congresswoman described Doha as “a permissive environment for terror financing” and said that it had “openly housed Hamas leaders, Taliban leaders, and has several individuals who have been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and it has failed to prosecute them.”
She said she hoped the rift would end with the Gulf countries working closely with the US Treasury Department “to root out and disrupt terror financing streams”.
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Other influential Republican members also urged other options be examined. “As we evaluate the situation, we have to ask Qatar a basic question: are you with us or against us” said Darrell Issa.
He argued for a demonstration from Qatar of its alliance with the US and asked for a list of demands to change Doha’s behaviour.
The meeting heard testimony from former US officials during the Bush and the Obama administrations.
Jonathan Schanzer of the thinktank Foundation for Defense of Democracies said Congress should have a six-point plan for dealing with Qatar including assessing whether it should continue to host Al Udeid.
He said it was “insane to have a US airbase conducting operations miles away from Taliban and Hamas members, housed and running around in Doha.”
It “sends a convoluted message to the coalition against ISIL and our other allies in the region” he added.
He called for a series of tougher anti-terrorist financing monitoring measures against Qatar, and said the State Department should be pressed to publish a report detailing which countries had paid ransoms to terrorist over the last year.
It followed a report in the Financial Times last month which suggested that Qatar had paid up to $1bn to release members of its royal family, kidnapped in Iraq while on a hunting trip.
The expert said “Congress must continue to monitor Qatar’s neighbours... the Gulf would remain an area of major concern for terrorism finance” when the dispute was eventually resolved.
Another witness, Ilan Goldenberg of the Center for a New American Security, objected to moving the Udeid airbase, saying that while Qatar was a complex partner, the base was essential to US foreign policy goals.
Mr Goldberg lamented the mixed messaging between the State Department and the President throughout this rift and urged Washington to move toward a consistent approach. He did not think the dispute, which has passed the 50-day mark, would be resolved soon.
New laws introduced by Qatar which would allow them to create a designated list of people subject to financial sanctions could provide a route out of the crisis, said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
He urged Qatar to “populate that list, in a transparent manner, starting with those individuals already designated by the U.S. Treasury Department.”
When compared to its neighbours, Mr Levitt said that Saudi Arabia “has turned a corner in working with us on designations and terror financing.”
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Torque 350Nm @ 1,200rpm
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Sector: Finance / legal
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Milestones on the road to union
1970
October 26: Bahrain withdraws from a proposal to create a federation of nine with the seven Trucial States and Qatar.
December: Ahmed Al Suwaidi visits New York to discuss potential UN membership.
1971
March 1: Alex Douglas Hume, Conservative foreign secretary confirms that Britain will leave the Gulf and “strongly supports” the creation of a Union of Arab Emirates.
July 12: Historic meeting at which Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid make a binding agreement to create what will become the UAE.
July 18: It is announced that the UAE will be formed from six emirates, with a proposed constitution signed. RAK is not yet part of the agreement.
August 6: The fifth anniversary of Sheikh Zayed becoming Ruler of Abu Dhabi, with official celebrations deferred until later in the year.
August 15: Bahrain becomes independent.
September 3: Qatar becomes independent.
November 23-25: Meeting with Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Rashid and senior British officials to fix December 2 as date of creation of the UAE.
November 29: At 5.30pm Iranian forces seize the Greater and Lesser Tunbs by force.
November 30: Despite a power sharing agreement, Tehran takes full control of Abu Musa.
November 31: UK officials visit all six participating Emirates to formally end the Trucial States treaties
December 2: 11am, Dubai. New Supreme Council formally elects Sheikh Zayed as President. Treaty of Friendship signed with the UK. 11.30am. Flag raising ceremony at Union House and Al Manhal Palace in Abu Dhabi witnessed by Sheikh Khalifa, then Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi.
December 6: Arab League formally admits the UAE. The first British Ambassador presents his credentials to Sheikh Zayed.
December 9: UAE joins the United Nations.
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Transmission: 10-speed automatic
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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.
“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.”
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