SANAA // Saudi Arabia and Egypt are considering whether to hold “large-scale” military exercises in the kingdom, as airstrikes by the Saudi-led coalition targeted Shiite Houthi rebels in neighbouring Yemen on Wednesday.
Warplanes targeted rebel positions in and around the southern city of Aden after overnight attacks by anti-government forces killed seven people, according to military sources and medics.
Residents said the rebels “randomly” shelled residential areas in the city, killing at least three civilians, while four armed supporters of president Abdrabu Mansur Hadi were shot dead.
Airstrikes also targeted rebel positions west of Aden in Ras Imran, where heavy clashes have been raging as the rebels try to advance towards the city’s strategic refinery. Three southern fighters were killed in the fighting, a local hospital medic said.
The rebels appear to be trying to seize petrol reserves stored at the refinery as the country suffers a huge shortage of fuel. Reinforcements, including tanks commanded by rebel troops, arrived in Ras Imran on Wednesday from the province of Lahj.
Meanwhile, in a possible sign that the coalition’s air campaign may expand into a ground operation, Egyptian president Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s office said late on Tuesday that Cairo and Riyadh were considering military drills with other Arabian Gulf countries participating.
“It was decided to form a joint military committee to look into a large-scale strategic manoeuvre on Saudi territory,” said Mr El Sisi’s office after the president met with the Saudi defence minister.
Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Arab countries launched the air strikes on March 26, after the Iran-backed rebels seized the capital Sanaa last year and advanced on the main southern city of Aden, where Mr Hadi had taken refuge.
The Yemeni president fled to Riyadh from Aden, which has since seen heavy fighting between pro and anti-government forces.
Saudi Arabia has accused Iran of arming the rebels, something that Tehran has denied.
Iran’s foreign minister said on Wednesday that his country would use all its influence to broker a peace deal for Yemen in order to end the Saudi-led air strikes.
“We are a major force in the region and we have relations with all groups in various countries, and we are going to use that in order to bring everybody to the negotiating table, to the point that we can,” said Mohammed Javad Zarif.
“We have influence with a lot of groups in Yemen, not just the Houthis and the Shia.”
He added that Iran had already consulted with Turkey and Pakistan, two majority-Sunni allies of Saudi Arabia, and Oman, the Gulf country that maintains the closest ties with Iran. None of the three has joined the Saudi-led air campaign against the Houthis.
World powers united against the rebels on Tuesday, with the UN security council voting to impose an arms embargo on their leaders.
The UN resolution – the first formal action taken by the security council since the start of the Saudi-led raids – demands that the Houthis withdraw from Sanaa and all other areas they have seized.
It also slaps an arms embargo on former president Ali Abdullah Saleh and his eldest son, Ahmed.
The Houthis have allied with troops loyal to Mr Saleh, who was forced from power in 2012 following a year of nationwide protests against his three-decade rule.
Yemeni military sources said on Wednesday that three weeks of Saudi-led airstrikes had led to defections of army units loyal to Mr Saleh, dealing a blow to his efforts to stage a comeback.
The Houthis and pro-Saleh army units have been fighting alongside each other on several fronts against militia forces loyal to Mr Hadi.
But sources said the Saudi-led bombing campaign has already led five pro-Saleh military brigades to defect. One of those battled Houthis in the province of Taiz on Wednesday, they said.
With civilian casualties mounting and agencies struggling to bring in aid, there have been warnings of a major humanitarian crisis in the already-impoverished country.
Residents have said they are suffering from major food and water shortages, with many afraid to leave their homes for fear of being caught in the crossfire.
The World Health Organization says at least 736 people have died in the conflict since April 12 and more than 2,700 have been wounded.
* Agence France-Presse with additional reporting by Reuters
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The bio
His favourite book - 1984 by George Orwell
His favourite quote - 'If you think education is expensive, try ignorance' by Derek Bok, Former President of Harvard
Favourite place to travel to - Peloponnese, Southern Greece
Favourite movie - The Last Emperor
Favourite personality from history - Alexander the Great
Role Model - My father, Yiannis Davos
Company%20Profile
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Company profile
Date started: January, 2014
Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe
Based: Dubai
Sector: Education technology
Size: Five employees
Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.
Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)
Anti-semitic attacks
The annual report by the Community Security Trust, which advises the Jewish community on security , warned on Thursday that anti-Semitic incidents in Britain had reached a record high.
It found there had been 2,255 anti-Semitic incidents reported in 2021, a rise of 34 per cent from the previous year.
The report detailed the convictions of a number of people for anti-Semitic crimes, including one man who was jailed for setting up a neo-Nazi group which had encouraged “the eradication of Jewish people” and another who had posted anti-Semitic homemade videos on social media.
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.”
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
My Cat Yugoslavia by Pajtim Statovci
Pushkin Press
FIGHT CARD
1. Featherweight 66kg
Ben Lucas (AUS) v Ibrahim Kendil (EGY)
2. Lightweight 70kg
Mohammed Kareem Aljnan (SYR) v Alphonse Besala (CMR)
3. Welterweight 77kg
Marcos Costa (BRA) v Abdelhakim Wahid (MAR)
4. Lightweight 70kg
Omar Ramadan (EGY) v Abdimitalipov Atabek (KGZ)
5. Featherweight 66kg
Ahmed Al Darmaki (UAE) v Kagimu Kigga (UGA)
6. Catchweight 85kg
Ibrahim El Sawi (EGY) v Iuri Fraga (BRA)
7. Featherweight 66kg
Yousef Al Husani (UAE) v Mohamed Allam (EGY)
8. Catchweight 73kg
Mostafa Radi (PAL) v Abdipatta Abdizhali (KGZ)
9. Featherweight 66kg
Jaures Dea (CMR) v Andre Pinheiro (BRA)
10. Catchweight 90kg
Tarek Suleiman (SYR) v Juscelino Ferreira (BRA)
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
Zayed Sustainability Prize
