Israel: time is ripe for peace talks

CAIRO // Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said yesterday the "time is ripe" for renewing peace negotiations with the Palestinians before meeting the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in Cairo today, during which he plans to raise the issue. "I hope we have reached the time to renew the peace process," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted Mr Netanyahu as telling diplomats gathered at the foreign ministry in Jerusalem. "The time for excuses is over. Now is the time for action."

Mr Netanyahu announced his visit to Cairo on Sunday, during the first anniversary of the Israeli incursion into the Gaza Strip. He said he had requested the meeting with Mr Mubarak after talks that Egypt's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, held in Israel last week. "I intend to continue this important dialogue," Mr Netanyahu said. Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, told a press conference in Cairo on Sunday: "We need a will from the Israeli side to put things in perspective concerning settlement, ie, a Palestinian state, which is an Egyptian, Arab, Palestinian and international demand on all the territories occupied in 1967.

"Some tell us why do you listen to him [Mr Netanyahu], just close the door and let him do what he's doing," continued Mr Aboul Gheit. "This is the easiest path, but it would lead to the loss of the Palestinian territories which he [Mr Netanyahu] considers to be perfect for him, as it allows him to build on Palestinian territories, impose his will on them, which would result in the loss of the Palestinian issue in the midst of the blind struggle among the Palestinian factions."

Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been suspended for the past year. The president, Mahmoud Abbas, has said talks could resume only if Israel halts all settlement construction on land it captured in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. He has rejected as insufficient a limited moratorium on new building in West Bank settlements that Mr Netanyahu imposed last month. "I can tell you generally that Mr Netanyahu will discuss the Israeli Palestinian file with President Mubarak and how Egypt can provide better atmosphere in order to renew negotiations," Amira Aron, head of the Egypt department in the Israeli foreign ministry, said in an interview.

"Obviously, we're giving great importance to the role Egypt is playing," she added, saying that the two leaders will also discuss "security and military issues and what's going on in Gaza and at the border". The "Shalit topic will be on the table," added Mrs Aron, referring to Gilad Shalit seized by Hamas during a raid into the Gaza Strip. Egypt and Germany are mediating a prisoner swap between Israel and Hamas under which the Islamist group, in charge of the territory, would release Sgt Shalit and Israel would free about 1,000 of the 11,000 Palestinians in its jails.

Two Gaza-based Hamas leaders, Mahmoud al Zahar and Khalil al Hayya, are today expected to travel to Syria via Egypt where they planned to discuss with Damascus-based Hamas leaders Israel's response to a proposed swap, a Hamas spokesman said. Officials familiar with the negotiations said Israel has ruled out releasing a handful of Palestinian militants serving life sentences for orchestrating lethal attacks.

Israel, the officials said, was also intent on barring between 100 and 120 Palestinian prisoners from returning to the occupied West Bank and wants them to be sent to Gaza or abroad. "At this stage there is no deal and it is not clear to me whether there will be one," a source present at Sunday's cabinet meeting quoted Mr Netanyahu as saying. The Israeli prime minister last visited Egypt in September, meeting Mr Mubarak in his residence in Heliopolis, Cairo, where the Israeli leader pledged to pursue talks with the Palestinians.

This is the third meeting between the two leaders, as Mr Netanyahu visited Mr Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in May. Egypt, which in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace deal with Israel, has been an active mediator trying to resolve the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, and between the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. Mr Mubarak visited Israel only once, to attend the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, the Israeli prime minister assassinated in 1995.

Email:nmagd@thenational.ae * With additional reporting by Reuters

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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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