SANAA // Yemen is “collapsing before our eyes” and the international community cannot stand by and watch, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.
The country has slipped further into chaos as the Houthis, an Iranian-backed Shiite militia from the north, consolidate their grip on power after seizing the capital in September and sidelining the central government.
The fighters have been advancing into southern territories, confronting Sunni tribesmen and the local branch of Al Qaeda.
“We must do everything possible to help Yemen step back from the brink and get the political process back on track,” Mr Ban told the UN Security Council.
His comments came as Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters seized an army base in southern Yemen and held soldiers prisoner on Thursday. The United States, Britain, and France on Wednesday closed their embassies in Sanaa because of security concerns.
UN special envoy for Yemen Jamal Benomar told the council by video link from Sanaa that Yemen was at a crossroads.
“Either the country will descend into civil war and disintegration, or the country will find a way to put the transition back on track,” Mr Benomar said.
The envoy has been leading UN efforts to broker a deal that would push the Houthis to step back from their power grab and restore some measure of stability in the country.
He warned that if no political settlement is secured in the coming days the Yemeni currency may collapse.
“Serious concerns exist that the government may be unable to pay salaries in the next two to three months,” he said.
Concern that Yemen is sliding towards a greater conflict has increased in recent weeks, with Saudi Arabia arming loyal tribesmen across its southern border and Egypt readying a military unit to intervene if needed.
In January, the rebels put president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi and his cabinet ministers under house arrest, leading to their resignations. The Houthis, who are followers of the Shiite Zaydi sect in Sunni-majority Yemen, then dissolved parliament, and declared they were taking over the government.
The militia said on Thursday that the closures of the Western diplomatic missions were “unjustified” and promised to return US embassy vehicles it had seized.
The turmoil in Yemen is now has resonating far outside the country’s borders.
As Houthi fighters advanced, Yemeni officials said Saudi Arabia, a staunch US ally, was sending arms and funds to tribesmen in Yemen’s Marib province to bolster them against the rebels.
Saudi Arabia has in recent months repeatedly stated its concern over the Houthis’ power grab.
Marib is an exclusively Sunni, energy-rich region on the border with Saudi Arabia where tribes have long been close to the Saudis. It is also home to a sizeable number of Al Qaeda militants.
Marib’s tribal leaders, like many others in Yemen, have been on the receiving end of Saudi largesse for decades, and some of them hold Saudi Arabian citizenship.
“Marib is the heart of Sunni tribal power,” said Majid Al Modhaj, a Yemeni analyst. “Fighting there will take the Houthis away from their comfort zone in mountainous areas and into plain and flat desert land they are not used to.”
Egypt has set up a special rapid deployment force that could intervene if the Houthis threaten shipping lanes in the Red Sea, according to Egyptian security officials. The force, they said, is drawn from the 3rd Army, which has been running security and intelligence operations in the Red Sea from its headquarters in Suez.
The Egyptians and Saudis were coordinating a joint military response to deal with any eventuality in Yemen, including the disruption of shipping, the officials said.
“Yemen is like the moon to Egypt, but it is important because of Cairo’s close ties with Saudi Arabia, to whom Yemen is a priority issue,” said Michael W Hanna, a Middle East expert from the New York-based Century Foundation.
Egypt and Saudi Arabia have forged close military ties since Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi took office in June, with frequent joint war games, including naval exercises in the Red Sea. Thousands of Egyptian special forces are embedded with their Saudi counterparts on the kingdom’s border with Iraq as a precaution against ISIL militants, according to the officials.
The region’s two most powerful Sunni nations, Saudi Arabia and Egypt view the rise of the Houthis with alarm, seeing it as a new geopolitical triumph for Iran after the country consolidated its influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
The Houthis deny links to Iran, and it has been difficult to determine with any accuracy Tehran’s role in the latest events.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani made it clear on Wednesday that Iran looks approvingly at events in Yemen.
“The power that assisted the people of Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen against terrorist groups was the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Mr Rouhani told a large crowd in Tehran.
The chief of staff of Iran’s military, Gen Hassan Firouzabadi, said Sanaa was now “one of the safest places in the region” after the Houthi takeover.
*Associated Press and Reuters
The specs
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How green is the expo nursery?
Some 400,000 shrubs and 13,000 trees in the on-site nursery
An additional 450,000 shrubs and 4,000 trees to be delivered in the months leading up to the expo
Ghaf, date palm, acacia arabica, acacia tortilis, vitex or sage, techoma and the salvadora are just some heat tolerant native plants in the nursery
Approximately 340 species of shrubs and trees selected for diverse landscape
The nursery team works exclusively with organic fertilisers and pesticides
All shrubs and trees supplied by Dubai Municipality
Most sourced from farms, nurseries across the country
Plants and trees are re-potted when they arrive at nursery to give them room to grow
Some mature trees are in open areas or planted within the expo site
Green waste is recycled as compost
Treated sewage effluent supplied by Dubai Municipality is used to meet the majority of the nursery’s irrigation needs
Construction workforce peaked at 40,000 workers
About 65,000 people have signed up to volunteer
Main themes of expo is ‘Connecting Minds, Creating the Future’ and three subthemes of opportunity, mobility and sustainability.
Expo 2020 Dubai to open in October 2020 and run for six months
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Key facilities
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
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The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
MATCH INFO
Euro 2020 qualifier
Croatia v Hungary, Thursday, 10.45pm, UAE
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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Expert input
If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?
“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett
“If I had all the money, I would approach Nike and ask them to do my own Air Force 1, that’s one of my dreams.” Yaseen Benchouche
“There’s nothing out there yet that I’d pay an insane amount for, but I’d love to create my own shoe with Tinker Hatfield and Jordan.” Joshua Cox
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“I’d stir up a creative collaboration with designers Martin Margiela of the mixed patchwork sneakers, and Yohji Yamamoto.” Hussain Moloobhoy
“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra
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.”
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
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Price: On request
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
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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
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