A Russian force deployment on the Syria-Lebanon border this week in a Hezbollah stronghold sparked protests by the Lebanese militant group, prompting the force to withdraw from its positions only a day later in a rare sign of tension between the allies.
The Russian move was not expected as Moscow's military police have been deploying in areas controlled by Syrian government forces and close to insurgent positions. The outskirts of the Syrian town of Qusair where the Russian troops set up three observation positions on Monday have been held by Hezbollah and Syrian troops since 2013, when they drove rebels from the area.
The Russian deployment and subsequent withdrawal shows that as rebels are being defeated in different parts of Syria, frictions could rise between Syrian President Bashar Al Assad's main foreign backers — Russia and Iran — and the militias Tehran backs throughout Syria.
"They came and deployed without co-ordination," said an official with the so-called "Axis of Resistance" led by Iran, which includes Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and other groups fighting alongside the Assad forces.
"It's better if they don't come back. There is no work for them there. There is no Daesh or any other terrorist organisation," the official said, referring to ISIS and other insurgents that the Syrian government and its allies call terrorist organisations. "What do they want to observe?" he asked.
Asked if there is tension between Hezbollah and Russian troops, the official refused to comment, speaking to the Associated Press by telephone from Syria on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief reporters. He said that after the Russian troops left, Syrian forces belonging to the army's 11th Division replaced them.
In 2013, Hezbollah openly joined the Syrian civil war along with Mr Assad's forces capturing the then rebel stronghold of Qusair in June that year after losing dozens of its battle-hardened fighters.
The Russian deployment outside Qusair came after Israeli warplanes struck the nearby Dabaa airbase on May 24, according to Syrian activists who said Hezbollah arms depots were hit. There was no word on casualties.
The Israeli military is believed to be behind dozens of air strikes in recent years against Hezbollah, Iran, and Syrian military positions. The US and Israeli governments have viewed Iran's role in Syria as a threat to Israel and have threatened action.
Although there have been no reports of frictions between Russian and Iranian or Iran-backed fighters in Syria, calls for Tehran to end its military presence in Syria have been on the rise in recent weeks.
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Read more
The Iranian militias fighting in Syria
Netanyahu warns Syria: expel Iran or face military consequences
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At a meeting with Mr Assad, who visited the Russian city of Sochi last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that a political settlement in Syria should encourage foreign countries to withdraw their troops.
Mr Putin's envoy for Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, later commented that the Russian leader's statement was aimed at the United States and Turkey, along with Iran and Hezbollah. It marked a rare instance in which Moscow suggested Iran should not maintain a permanent military presence in the country.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a list of demands last month for a new nuclear deal with Iran, including the pullout of its forces from Syria. Israel has also warned it will not accept a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria.
Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Al Mokdad however has said on Russia's Sputnik news agency that "this topic is not even on the agenda of discussion, since it concerns the sovereignty of Syria".
A top Iranian security official said that Tehran will maintain an advisory role in Syria and continue to support "resistance groups". The secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Ali Shamkhani meanwhile told Al Jazeera TV that as long as Syria faces a "terrorist" threat and Damascus requests its presence, "we will stay in Syria".
And for his part, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a speech on Friday that "if the whole world tried to impose on us a withdrawal from Syria they will not be able to make us leave", adding that his group would only leave at the request of the Syrian government.
The tensions come amid escalation in the country's southwest near the border with Israel, where in early May Iran struck Israeli positions in the Golan Heights in retaliation for repeated air strikes in Syria.
Read more: Israel suspected of carrying out new air strikes in Syria
On May 10, Israel unleashed a heavy bombardment against what it said were Iranian military installations in Syria. It said it was retaliation for an Iranian rocket barrage on its positions in the Golan. It was the most serious military confrontation between the two bitter enemies to date.
Israel has been mostly using Lebanon's airspace to strike targets inside Syria in an apparent move to avoid any conflict with Russia's warplanes that fly over Syria. Russia has a major airbase near Syria's coast from where warplanes have been taking off to strike at insurgents throughout Syria.
"There is an increasing evidence that shows that Russia has turned a blind eye to Israel's air strike in Syria against Iran's military presence," said Fawaz Gerges, professor of Middle Eastern politics at the London School of Economics. "This is a direct message that Russia does not want Iran to have a hegemonic position in Syria."
Russia and Iran have been the main backers of Mr Assad but Moscow also has close relations with Israel whose Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russia several times over the past two years. On one trip last month, he stood close to Mr Putin while attending a massive parade for Russian troops marking victory in the Second World War.
Russia has been reportedly mediating for Iranian troops and Hezbollah fighters to withdraw from areas close to the Israeli border where Syrian troops are expected to launch an offensive against rebels.
"What happens after is not Russia's problem: Iran will fight Israel for centuries. Netanyahu won't be satisfied with Iran's exit from south-west Syria, he needs an Iran-free Syria, which is impossible now or ever," said Maxim Suchkov, who edits Russia-Middle East coverage at online news website Al Monitor and sits on the Russian International Affairs Council. "Neither Russia, nor anyone can ensure that."
Since September 2015, Mr Assad's forces have been making strong gains on the ground against insurgents thanks to Russian air cover and ground forces mostly made up of Iran-backed fighters from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr Assad now controls more than half of Syria's territories including the largest four cities.
Russian troops do not appear to be leaving Syria, home to their only naval base outside the former Soviet Union, any time soon. The Russian parliament voted in December to extend Russia's lease of the naval base in the Syrian city of Tartous for 49 years, following Vladimir Putin's announcement of a partial pullout of Russian troops from the war-torn country.
"In the past three years, Russian and Iranian influence converged in Syria. They wanted to rescue the Assad regime," Mr Gerges said. "Now that we are witnessing the beginning of the end of the military phase, we are witnessing divergence of interest between Russia and Iran."
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- 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
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- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Specs
Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric
Range: Up to 610km
Power: 905hp
Torque: 985Nm
Price: From Dh439,000
Available: Now
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
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Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
The specs
Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors
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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.”
more from Janine di Giovanni
DIVINE%20INTERVENTOIN
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THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
No more lice
Defining head lice
Pediculus humanus capitis are tiny wingless insects that feed on blood from the human scalp. The adult head louse is up to 3mm long, has six legs, and is tan to greyish-white in colour. The female lives up to four weeks and, once mature, can lay up to 10 eggs per day. These tiny nits firmly attach to the base of the hair shaft, get incubated by body heat and hatch in eight days or so.
Identifying lice
Lice can be identified by itching or a tickling sensation of something moving within the hair. One can confirm that a person has lice by looking closely through the hair and scalp for nits, nymphs or lice. Head lice are most frequently located behind the ears and near the neckline.
Treating lice at home
Head lice must be treated as soon as they are spotted. Start by checking everyone in the family for them, then follow these steps. Remove and wash all clothing and bedding with hot water. Apply medicine according to the label instructions. If some live lice are still found eight to 12 hours after treatment, but are moving more slowly than before, do not re-treat. Comb dead and remaining live lice out of the hair using a fine-toothed comb.
After the initial treatment, check for, comb and remove nits and lice from hair every two to three days. Soak combs and brushes in hot water for 10 minutes.Vacuum the floor and furniture, particularly where the infested person sat or lay.
Courtesy Dr Vishal Rajmal Mehta, specialist paediatrics, RAK Hospital
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