Top Shiite cleric urges Iraqis to fight advancing militants

BAGHDAD // Iraq’s top Shiite cleric yesterday urged Iraqis to take up arms against Sunni militants marching on Baghdad, as thousands volunteered to bolster the capital’s defences.

Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani’s call came as the US president Barack Obama said he was considering a range of options to halt the offensive led by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

But Mr Obama warned that Iraq’s leaders had to address deep sectarian divisions.

“Citizens who are able to bear arms and fight terrorists, defending their country and their people and their holy places, should volunteer and join the security forces to achieve this holy purpose,” Ayatollah Al Sistani’s representative said at Friday prayers in the Shiite shrine city of Karbala.

The elderly cleric, who rarely appears in public, is highly influential among Shiites and adored by millions.

Iraqi prime minister Nouri Al Maliki travelled to the embattled city of Samarra north of the capital for a security meeting.

Mr Al Maliki said security forces “began their work to clear all our dear cities from these terrorists”, without giving details of where or when operations had started.

But ISIL entered two more towns in Diyala province on Friday – Jalula, 125 kilometres north-east of Baghdad, and Sadiyah, 95km north of the Iraqi capital.

Iraqi soldiers abandoned their posts there without any resistance, police officials said.

The militants were gathering for a new attempt to take Samarra, home to a revered Shiite shrine where a 2006 bombing sparked a deadly sectarian war.

Residents of Samarra, just 110km from Baghdad, said gunmen were gathering to the north, east and south-east of the city.

The militants have already twice attacked Samarra, once on Wednesday and once late last week, but were thwarted after heavy fighting.

They have taken a huge swath of mainly Sunni territory in northern and north-central Iraq since their offensive in Mosul on Monday.

Tikrit fell to ISIL on Wednesday and Dhuluiya in Diyala province on Thursday.

Their rapid advance has emerged as the biggest threat to Iraq’s stability since the withdrawal of US forces at the end of 2011, and has pushed the nation closer to a precipice that could result in partitions for Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish zones.

Speaking at the White House on Friday, Mr Obama did not specify what options he was considering to counter the militant offensive, but repeated that American troops would not be sent back into combat in Iraq.

“We’re not going to allow ourselves to be dragged back into a situation in which after we’re not there, people start acting in ways that are not conducive to the long-term stability and prosperity of the country,” he said.

Shiite neighbour Iran has indicated its willingness to confront the growing threat from the militant forces.

Iran’s official Irna news agency reported that former members of Tehran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard have announced they were prepared to fight in Iraq against ISIL.

And Iranian state TV quoted President Hassan Rouhani as saying his country would do all it can to battle terrorism next door.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will apply all its efforts on the international and regional levels to confront terrorism,” it quoted Mr Rouhani as telling the Iraqi prime minister.

But Iranian officials denied reports that their forces were already fighting inside Iraq.

Meanwhile, the UN human rights chief Navi Pillay has warned of “murder of all kinds” and other war crimes in Iraq, where her office says the number of those killed in recent days may run into the hundreds and the number of wounded could approach 1,000.

Ms Pillay said her office had received reports that militants rounded up and killed Iraqi army soldiers and as 17 civilians in a single street in Mosul.

Her office is hearing of “summary executions and extrajudicial killings” as ISIL militants overran Iraqi cities and towns this week.

“I am extremely concerned about the acute vulnerability of civilians caught in the cross-fire, or targeted in direct attacks by armed groups, or trapped in areas under the control of ISIL and their allies,” Ms Pillay said.

“And I am especially concerned about the risk to vulnerable groups, minorities, women and children.”

The UN said it had received reports of women committing suicide after being raped or forced to marry ISIL fighters and the summary execution of people believed to have worked for the police.

The International Organisation for Migration estimated on Friday that 40,000 people had fled Tikrit and Samarra, adding to half a million people believed to have fled Mosul.

* Agence France-Press and Associated Press

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Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

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The chef's advice

Troy Payne, head chef at Abu Dhabi’s newest healthy eatery Sanderson’s in Al Seef Resort & Spa, says singles need to change their mindset about how they approach the supermarket.

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Mr Payne asks for the sticker to be placed directly on each item, rather than face the temptation of filling one of the two-kilogram capacity plastic bags on offer.

The chef also advises singletons not get too hung up on “organic”, particularly high-priced varieties that have been flown in from far-flung locales. Local produce is often grown sustainably, and far cheaper, he says.

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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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