WASHINGTON // A deadly assault on a US consulate in Libya was a spontaneous reaction to an anti-Muslim video, the US ambassador to the United Nations said yesterday, even as Libya's president insisted the attackers spent months preparing and carefully choosing their date - the anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Unnerved by the rapidly escalating raid on Tuesday that claimed the life of the US ambassador to Libya and three other Americans, the US administration last week launched an investigation into whether terrorist groups had exploited outrage over an anti-Muslim video to trigger an attack long in the works.
But Ambassador Susan Rice said evidence gathered so far shows no indication of a premeditated or coordinated strike.
She said the attack in Benghazi, powered by mortars and rocket-propelled grenades, appeared to be a copycat of demonstrations that had erupted hours earlier outside the US Embassy in Cairo, spurred by a YouTube film attributed to a California man mocking the Prophet Mohammed.
"It seems to have been hijacked, let us say, by some individual clusters of extremists who came with heavier weapons," Ms Rice said, adding that such weaponry is easy to come by in post-revolutionary Libya.
The United States ordered non-essential diplomatic staff and their relatives to leave Sudan and Tunisia yesterday following violent anti-American protests while the US Embassy in Yemen has suspended all consular services.
The protests came in response to the circulation of a clip from Innocence of Muslims, a film that mocks Islam.
Late yesterday, the leader of Hizbollah called for protests against the video starting today but said Muslims must not attack embassies. Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said that the Shiite militant group will organise demonstrations against the film in different parts of Lebanon.
"The whole world needs to see your anger on your faces, in your fists and your shouts," Sheik Nasrallah said in a televised speech. "The whole world should know that the Prophet has followers who will not be silent in the face of humiliation".
Last Friday, demonstrators stormed the US Embassy in Tunis and four people were killed in the melee.
Two protesters were killed in Sudan on Friday as a crowd of about 5,000 furious people attacked the embassies of Britain, the US and Germany, setting the last ablaze.
"Given the security situation in Tunis and Khartoum, the State Department has ordered the departure of all family members and non-emergency personnel from both posts, and issued parallel travel warnings to American citizens," the US state department's spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.
Germany followed the US lead and withdrew some staff from its embassy in Sudan.
But Mohammed Al Megaryef, president of the Libyan National Congress, told CBS News that the attack was "pre-planned, determined, pre-determined".
He said Libyan authorities have arrested about 50 people alleged to have been involved in the attack. He added that "a few" of those who joined in the attack were foreigners, who had entered Libya "from different directions, some of them definitely from Mali and Algeria".
Tunisian authorities, meanwhile, arrested 75 people in connection with protests, a spokesman for the interior ministry said yesterday. A planned demonstration in Sana, Yemen, against the deployment of US Marines at the US Embassy was cancelled by organisers, the Houthi rebel movement from the north, after people failed to show up.
* With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
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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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