JERUSALEM // Israel’s chief peace negotiator yesterday accused a key coalition partner of deliberately seeking to sabotage talks with the Palestinians by ramping up settlement construction.
Speaking before the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, arrived on his second visit within a week, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni accused the far-right national religious Jewish Home party of deliberately promoting Israeli settlement projects in a bid “to derail” the negotiations.
“More building, more announcements of building in isolated settlements are meant to prevent us reaching peace,” she told an audience at Tel Aviv University.
“That is their deliberate intention, to derail the negotiations. To cause the other side to walk out of the room,” she said.
Mr Kerry’s latest peacemaking mission to the region is expected to focus on security in any final-status accord.
Along with the issue of Israeli settlements on land Palestinians want for their future state, Palestinians also object to Israel’s insistence on maintaining troops in the Jordan Valley area of the West Bank even after a final peace treaty is signed.
“There should be a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces to the 1967 lines, including the Jordan Valley,” Saleh Rafat, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation’s executive committee, said. “If Kerry just comes back with the same proposals, this is not acceptable.”
The Palestinians would accept deployment of an international force in the Jordan Valley, Mr Rafat said — a proposal Israel rejects.
The Israelis want to maintain forces in the Jordan Valley to protect the country’s eastern border.
“Sometimes there is the impression that the Palestinians are seizing on every detail, every excuse, to sabotage every chance for peace, every negotiation,” Israeli minister of intelligence and strategic affairs, Yuval Steinitz, said. “The principle is very simple; our security must rest in our own hands.”
Mr Kerry arrived yesterday for another round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at driving forward the peace talks.
He was to meet the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, in the West Bank yesterday. However, a heavy snowstorm forced the cancellation of his meeting with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem yesterday, although they are scheduled to meet today.
Looking to win him over Mr Abbas, Mr Kerry was yesterday to be accompanied by retired US General John Allen, who has been working on possible solutions to allay Israeli security concerns.
“It is the first time that Gen Allen is doing a briefing with President Abbas,” a US official said. Until now Gen Allen, a former commander of US troops in Afghanistan, has only briefed the Israelis on his ideas.
The Jewish Home party, which was criticised by Ms Livni, controls the housing ministry, giving it a key role in promoting Israeli construction on land the Palestinians want for a future state.
“When one speaks of the Jewish Home’s veto power in the government, everyone is concerned with its veto on issues of religion and state,” said Ms Livni, whose centrist HaTnuah party is also part of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.
“They have another veto — with more settlement building, they place a veto on peace. They must not be allowed to use this informal veto, this illegitimate veto,” she said.
The US brokered a renewal of peace talks in July between Palestinians and Israelis after a three-year hiatus. At the end of his trip last week, Mr Kerry said the sides were closer to peace than they have been in years and that an accord was reachable.
If the talks do not progress, the US is preparing to present its own outline of a final peace agreement to both sides within weeks, the Haaretz daily said yesterday, citing unidentified American and Israeli officials.
“This is an continuing discussion,” state Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday, two days after Mr Kerry met with each side’s top negotiators in Washington. “Certainly we expect they will talk about security, as they will discuss other issues.”
The US hopes by the end of April to reach a final-status agreement for Israeli-Palestinian peace, a document that details all the core issues but is less detailed than a full treaty, which would probably take another six months to a year to iron out, according to US officials.
* Agence France-Presse with additonal reporting by Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg News
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.”
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Fixtures
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Ms Yang's top tips for parents new to the UAE
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Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
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Banned items
Dubai Police has also issued a list of banned items at the ground on Sunday. These include:
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Political flags or banners
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Bikes, skateboards or scooters
New schools in Dubai
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Small Victories: The True Story of Faith No More by Adrian Harte
Jawbone Press
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