Libyan officials have taken steps to shore up the state’s control over the country’s oil wealth as the country’s attorney general issued an arrest warrant for Abdulhakim Belhaj, an Islamist politician and terrorist, and his one-time ally the militia leader Ibrahim Jahdran.
In the indictments, the duo are accused of involvement in the massacre of 141 soldiers and civilians loyal to Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar at the Tamenhint airbase in 2017 as well as helping to blockade some of Libya’s largest oil export terminals.
Another four Libyans were included in the official documents, as were 31 Sudanese and Chadian rebels who were said to have committed murder and kidnappings in southern Libya.
Mr Belhaj, who was placed on sanctions lists by UAE, Saudi, Bahrain, Egypt in 2017, rejected the accusations and said it was an attempt to remove him from the political scene.
He is a former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), an Islamist faction linked to the Muslim Brotherhood that sought to overthrow long-time ruler Muammar Qaddafi and was at one point proscribed by the USA and UK.
The LIFG continuously rejected accusations it was linked to Al Qaeda, which stemmed in part from many of its commanders, including Mr Belhaj, having fought alongside Osama Bin Laden against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.
The UK was forced to apologise to Mr Belhaj and his wife last year due to their involvement following the 2004 rendition by US intelligence officers from Thailand to Libya.
Mr Belhaj would later be among those to storm Tripoli during the 2011 revolution that ousted Colonel Qaddafi. Now based in Turkey, he heads the conservative-leaning Watan party.
Mr Jahdran’s forces held Libya’s central oil crescent from 2013 until 2016, a region that provides a large chunk of the country’s roughly 1.1 million barrels per day (bpd) output. Dissatisfied with the central government Mr Jahdran lost Libya billions of dollars when he closed the oil fields and attempted to independently export.
Mr Jahdran’s fighters were eventually ousted by General Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) but attacked the same area again in the summer 2018. The US and UN both sanctioned Mr Jahdran after these actions.
General Haftar’s forces do not recognise the Attorney General in the capital Tripoli and are supported by a rival administration in eastern Libya, but nonetheless welcomed the arrest warrants for two of their main rivals.
LNA brigades have chased with Mr Jahdran’s fighters and another group, the Benghazi Defence Brigades, in recent weeks. It is the furthest west General Haftar’s forces have pushed.
Confirming the move, an LNA official told The National: "We are no longer going to wait for these militias to attack the oil fields. We are going to track and hit those militias wherever they are."
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Libya’s south is rife with an array of rebel groups from Sudan and Chad, who are able to move around the sparsely populated with relative ease amid the security vacuum. It is common for Libya’s array of competing factions to accuse each other of employing sub-Saharan mercenaries.
Its embattled oil industry remains a vital economic lifeline for the fractious country, but output often plunges when angry groups take over its facilities.
Last month disaffected locals the neglected south stormed and closed its largest oilfield in protest at their living conditions.
Despite this, on Sunday Libya’s state oil company announced an average of 1.107 bpd and revenues of $24.4 billion for 2018 – a five-year high.
The End of Loneliness
Benedict Wells
Translated from the German by Charlotte Collins
Sceptre
Race%20card
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The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre, 4-cylinder turbo
Transmission: CVT
Power: 170bhp
Torque: 220Nm
Price: Dh98,900
MATCH INFO
Who: France v Italy
When: Friday, 11pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
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.”
Zakat definitions
Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.
Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.
Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.
Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.
SPECS
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8 traditional Jamaican dishes to try at Kingston 21
- Trench Town Rock: Jamaican-style curry goat served in a pastry basket with a carrot and potato garnish
- Rock Steady Jerk Chicken: chicken marinated for 24 hours and slow-cooked on the grill
- Mento Oxtail: flavoured oxtail stewed for five hours with herbs
- Ackee and salt fish: the national dish of Jamaica makes for a hearty breakfast
- Jamaican porridge: another breakfast favourite, can be made with peanut, cornmeal, banana and plantain
- Jamaican beef patty: a pastry with ground beef filling
- Hellshire Pon di Beach: Fresh fish with pickles
- Out of Many: traditional sweet potato pudding
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
