Iran comes to town

Jan 17, 2024

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GREETINGS! First up, Global Playbook has a bit of vital good news from the World Economic Forum in Davos: The snow showers stayed away long enough to allow choppers to land on the helipad near the lake, so the world’s billionaires weren’t forced to schlep up the mountain by road like the rest of us plebs. What a relief!

NO MOOCHING OFF THE MOOCH! It was a full house at Skybridge’s legendary wine-tasting forum at Hotel Europe last night, with master of ceremonies Anthony Scaramucci in fine form overseeing the festivities. But for the second year running, the wine stopped flowing at 11 p.m., leaving many a thirsty VIP a day late and a dollar short.

THE OTHER QATARGATE: On the other side of town at the AlpenGold Hotel, it was a battle of the parties between Qatar and South Africa, who’d both booked rooms at the venue for their big bashes. Full report further down, but here’s a spoiler: the South Africans won.

DRIVING THE DAY: GEOPOLITICS ON THE MAIN STAGE

IRAN IN THE SPOTLIGHT: One of the international community’s best-known pariah states — Iran — will have pride of place at the WEF today, when Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is interviewed by CNN’s Fareed Zakaria in the Congress Center.

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Awks: The Iranian’s appearance is scheduled a few hours after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken graces the stage. (Don’t expect any fist-bumps in the corridors.)

Courting controversy: Amir-Abdollahian was a relatively last-minute addition to the schedule — a move that’s being slammed by groups like United Against Nuclear Iran.

Interesting company: One of Amir-Abdollahian’s recent international visits was to Qatar, where he met with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of Hamas. And just a couple of days ago, Amir-Abdollahian spoke by phone with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The Tehran connection: Iran has long been a key backer of Hamas, which carried out the October 7 mass attacks on Israel, sells weapons to Russia, and backs Hezbollah in Lebanon, Shiite militias in Iraq and Syria, and the Houthis attacking shipping in the Red Sea.

Iran’s next move: Amir-Abdollahian’s Davos utterings will be closely watched. The world has been playing a nervous waiting game since October 7, trying to ascertain Iran’s intentions. Just last night the U.S. carried out fresh strikes on targets linked with the Iranian-backed Houthis — the third round in a week. Iran also claimed responsibility for blasts near the U.S. consulate in the Iraqi city of Erbil on Monday.

SPEAKING OF AUTOCRATIC REGIMES: China was the center of attention Tuesday evening at Dalian Night at the Congress Center, with guests treated to sumptuous food, a sculpture of fowl cut out of white radish, and a display of red scarves. It was an ode to the Chinese city hosting the “summer Davos,” reports POLITICO’s Alex Ward, who may or may not have indulged in some hearty beef noodle soup.

Klaus hearts China: The event kicked off with a parade of Chinese officials lauding the city of Dalian and national leader Xi Jinping for turning China into an industrial powerhouse. Klaus Schwab, WEF’s own paramount leader, took to the stage to note China’s 45-year participation record in Davos.

TRUMP RIPPLE EFFECTS

THE MOOCH BETS ON BIDEN: Every investment community loves a contrarian take. Step up, the Mooch. President Donald Trump’s short-lived comms director told POLITICO’s Power Play podcast, and our own Zach Warmbrodt, that the Davos crowd is wrong to fear a Trump return — he’s confident Joe Biden will win the U.S. election in November.

Reading the ruins: “There’s not one person I’ve met here in the last 48 hours that thinks Joe Biden’s winning. And this is classic Davos,” he said, noting the WEF crowd also incorrectly predicted that Hillary Clinton would win in 2016 and Trump would be reelected in 2020. Listen to the podcast here.

Dire warning: If it comes down to Trump vs. Biden as expected, the SkyBridge Capital founder said business leaders should back the sitting president. Biden’s too old to be commander-in-chief in Scaramucci’s view, but “he’s got a great staff, and they’ve done a good job.” He also had a (scary) warning for business leaders who are comfortable with a Trump return.

He went there: “The business leaders were generally OK with Mussolini. They were generally OK with Hitler. Until it goes crazy,” he told Zach over scrambled eggs in the Hilton. “Then five years into it the cronyism kicks in, the unpredictability of the law kicks in, the expansion of autocratic powers kicks in. … [Trump] has told you he wants to be a dictator. He has told you that he wants to expand the executive powers. He has told you he’s going to go after his enemies.”

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POLITICO MUST-READS

BOUQUETS AFTER THE BRICK BATS: We’ve given you the “dirty dozen” of Davos; it’s only fair to also highlight the goody-two-shoes of the World Economic Forum. From those who are battling climate change, poverty and disease, to those defending democracy and their nations’ freedom, Global Playbook Editor Zoya Sheftalovich highlights eight of the more virtuous folks fighting the good fight in the Swiss Alps.

Davos do-gooders: Top of the charts is of course Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose leadership and tenacity in taking on Russian aggression has made him a star attendee at the forum. Joining him on the political list is exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who’s in Davos this week in a bid to hold dictator Alexander Lukashenko to account.

Fighting the good fight: Other figures who make the list are philanthropist Bill Gates, whose largesse has given his foundation an outsized influence over the global health agenda, Jane Goodall, a leader on conservation and animal rights issues, and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, who continues to make the case for political action on climate change. Read the whole thing here.

HOW BRITAIN’S LEFT-WINGERS LEARNED TO LOVE DAVOS: Britain’s Labour Party wants everyone to know it’s in Davos this year. Leader Keir Starmer has dispatched two of the most senior members of his team — Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Shadow Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds — to partake in high-level meetings/photo-ops. That’s a stark contrast to the stance under the previous Labour leader, the radical left-winger Jeremy Corbyn, reports my colleague Bethany Dawson.

NOW HEAR FROM A TORY: POLITICO’s Power Play team is sitting down with U.K. Foreign Secretary David Cameron for an interview in Davos. If you’ve got any burning questions to ask the foreign sec, send them through here. The episode will drop Thursday.

PARTY REPORT

SOUTH AFRICA 1; QATAR 0. Two parties, one hotel, one clear winner. The dulcet tones of the harp at the Qatar Investment Authority reception paled in comparison with the riotous dancing and singing to the live band coming from the South African party upstairs at the AlpenGold Hotel last night. As POLITICO’s party-correspondent-in-chief Paul de Villepin reports, the Swiss cheese croquettes and strawberry panna cottas did little to entertain the bored-looking guests at the Qatar soirée (and one or two may have made their escape to the shindig upstairs).

Big names: Things picked up a bit for the Qataris when the prime minister (and dirty dozener) Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani walked in. Bob Prince, the co-chief investment officer at Bridgewater Associates, and Alexandr Wang, who became the world’s youngest self-made billionaire aged 24, got special shout-outs. Full spotted list below.

South Africa rockin’: Meanwhile, over at the South African do, killer beats and top-notch beer and food curated by celebrity chef Zanele Van Zyl stole the show.

WHERE TO HEAR THE PIANO MAN: Davos legend Barry Colson is continuing to keep the Davos set entertained at Barry’s Piano Bar, having been poached from the Hotel Europe a few years back. In a sign of the times, late-night revellers who make it to Cloudflare’s evening bash running throughout the week can access the song request list via a QR code at the venue.

AROUND TOWN

FORECAST: Low of -9C/15F; high of 2C/36F.

OVERHEARD … at the Hilton Garden Inn: “Do you ever wish you’d invested in property here 30 years ago?” Yeah, yeah we do.

LATE-NIGHT BITES: Get down to the Uber Pavilion at Promenade 63 from 10 p.m. to midnight tonight and Thursday: Uber Eats has teamed up with local fave Tenz Momo to serve a selection of free food including dumplings and late-night snacks.

LATE-NIGHT TIPPLE: Playbook will be sipping the good stuff (we hope) at the DCVC Deep Tech in Davos “100-Point” bourbon tasting tonight, on from 10 p.m. at Promenade 64 (invitation only, alas).

COFFEE HIT: The main lounge in the Congress Center remains the best place to get caffeinated in town. Top-notch Colombian coffee, served black or with soya, almond or oat milk — and always with a smile.

DAVOS TOP TIP: WEF logistics can be hard, so here’s a little tip to help you on your way: If you’re trying to get from Davos Platz to the promenade, use the elevator in the co-op building right across from the station — and skip the slope of doom nearby.

SPOTTED

— Open Society Foundations chief Alexander Soros and former Swedish PM Carl Bildt talking about the state of European politics in the Central Lounge in the Congress Center.

— U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan with a posse of security guards walking along the promenade.

— At the Qatari Investment Authority event last night at the AlpenGold: PM Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim al-Thani, Bridgewater’s Bob Prince, CEO of Scale AI Alexandr Wang, President of the Confederation of African Football Patrice Motsepe, chief of the U.K. secret intelligence service MI6 Richard Moore, Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, Porsche chief Oliver Blume, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s adviser Jörg Kukies, Shadow U.K. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds, Sony Chief Strategy Officer Toshimoto Mitomo, Minister of Foreign Trade and Tourism of Peru Juan Carlos Mathews and Togolese Minister of Digital Economy and Transformation Cina Lawson.

— At Bloomberg’s Women Who Lead cocktail hour at Bloomberg House: Queen Máxima of the Netherlands, head of Meta’s Global Business Group Nicola Mendelsohn, director and founder of SOC Films Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission Caroline D. Pham, Chairman of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Ltd Laura Cha, U.K. Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves, Angola Finance Minister Vera Daves De Sousa, barrister Cherie Blair, Brazilian Environment Minister Marina Silva, Finsbury Chief of Staff Dan Gieve, U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Scott C. Miller, Bloomberg’s Jean-Paul Zammit, Karen Saltser and David Merritt.

— At South Africa night at the AlpenGold: Celebrity chef Zanele Van Zyl, SAB’s Zoleka Lisa, South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, Covington’s Maree Gallagher and Mosa Mkhize, AB inBev’s John Blood and Andres Peñate.

— At the annual wine tasting forum at Hotel Europe, hosted by the Wine Forum, Skybridge, NAX, and Roundglass: U.S. Senator Chris Coons, Financial Times U.S. Editor-at-Large and Provost of King’s College Cambridge Gillian Tett, Anthony ‘the mooch’ Scaramucci, Mubadala’s Brian Lott, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince, SkyCell CEO Richard Ettl, Wall Street Journal’s Charles Forelle, Teneo chief Paul Keary, Guidewheel boss Lauren Dunford, Laura Poppick, Kendall Collins of Salesforce.

— At the EY Forbes Nightcap at Goal’s House: EY Chairman and CEO Carmine Di Sibio, EY CEO-elect Janet Truncale, Forbes Executive Vice President Moira Forbes, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Alphabet’s Ruth Porat, CEO of Palo Alto Networks Nikesh Arora, COP26 President Alok Sharma, CEO of Octopus Energy Greg Jackson.

AGENDA

FULL PROGRAM.

Congress Center headliners (livestream)

— 10 a.m. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in conversation.

— 10.45 a.m. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres special address.

— 1.30 pm. Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in conversation with Fareed Zakaria.

— 3.45 p.m. Argentine President Javier Milei special address.

— 4.45 p.m. Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez special address.

— 5.30 p.m. French President Emmanuel Macron special address.

What else we’re watching

— 7 a.m. Revitalizing Ukraine: The role of business. Speakers: Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Rostyslav Shurma, Special Envoy of France for Ukraine’s Relief and Reconstruction Pierre Heilbronn, CEO of Naftogaz of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov, CEO of DTEK Maxim Timchenko, CEO of Metinvest Yuriy Ryzhenkov, former U.S. Ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker, economist Anders Åslund, Horizon Capital’s Vasile Tofan. Steigenberger Icon Grandhotel Belvédère.

— 7.30 a.m. Panel on the business of human rights and protections abroad. Speakers: Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, parents of detained WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights President Kerry Kennedy, WSJ Editor-in-Chief Emma Tucker. Journal House.

— 9 a.m. Panel on defending Europe’s united front. Speakers include Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, Polish President Andrzej Duda.

— 9.30 a.m. Mapping solutions for extreme weather. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and Naomi Oreskes, Harvard University history of science prof.

— 11 a.m. Why women are uniquely positioned for leadership roles. Speakers: Salesforce President and CFO Amy Weaver, POLITICO CEO Goli Sheikholeslami, Infosys Group General Counsel and the Chief Compliance Officer Inderpreet Sawhney, Chief Marketing Officer of Nuveen Tara Giuliano, The Female Quotient CEO Shelley Zalis. The Female Quotient Lounge.

— 11.15 a.m. Addressing the north-south schism. Speakers: President of Rwanda Paul Kagame, WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte, President of Colombia Gustavo Petro, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-Chair Bill Gates, FT’s Martin Wolf.

— 2.30 p.m. Panel on climate and nature featuring IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva and World Bank President Ajay Banga.

— 4.15 p.m. How to trust economics town hall, featuring European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde.

— 7.30 p.m. until 9 p.m. LGBTQ rainbow light-up of the promenade at dusk; cocktail reception at the Circle Lounge.

— 10 p.m. until 12.30 a.m. DCVC Deep Tech in Davos “100-Point” bourbon tasting. By invitation only, Promenade 64.

THANKS TO: Paul de Villepin, Nahal Toosi, Cristina Gonzalez, Jamil Anderlini, Alex Ward, Zach Warmbrodt.

Global Playbook couldn’t happen without Editor Zoya Sheftalovich.

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