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The rulers of the United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday that they had unanimously appointed Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as president of the hereditary kingdom on the Arabian Peninsula.
Burhan Ozbilic/Associated Press
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Burhan Ozbilic/Associated Press
The rulers of the United Arab Emirates announced on Saturday that they had unanimously appointed Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as president of the hereditary kingdom on the Arabian Peninsula.
Burhan Ozbilic/Associated Press
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The rulers of the United Arab Emirates unanimously named Abu Dhabi’s Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as president of the autocratic nation on Saturday, marking a sign of a Western military vital energy-rich nations for unity and stability.
Sheikh Mohammed, 61, is expected to be promoted after the death of his half-brother and UAE President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan on Friday. 73 years oldFor the third time since becoming an independent nation in 1971, the US ally of seven emirates has elected a president, a transition of power.
Led by Sheikh Mohammed, who has been the country’s de facto leader since Sheikh Khalifa suffered a stroke in 2014, the UAE sought to project military power over the wider region as it joined the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
But since the coronavirus pandemic was shut down, Sheikh Mohammed and the wider UAE have been trying to recalibrate their approach by largely pulling out of the war and seeking diplomatic de-escalation with rivals. The UAE also recognizes Israel diplomatically, in line with Sheikh Mohammed’s longstanding suspicion of Iran. In recent years, however, relations with the United States have become strained.
The state-run WAM news agency described the vote at Abu Dhabi’s Al-Mushrif Palace as a unanimous vote by the rulers of the country’s hereditary emirate, which includes the skyscraper-filled city of Dubai.
“We congratulate him, we pledge our allegiance to him, our people pledge allegiance to him,” Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said on Twitter after the vote. “The whole nation is on his way to glory and honor, God bless.”
Only one president has died before Friday in the country’s history, and after his death in 2004, Sheikh Khalifa succeeded him and Sheikh Mohammed’s father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al. Nahyan. The main highway connecting the UAE, whose faces appear across the country, are widely regarded as the country’s founding fathers.
The entire UAE is observing a three-day mourning period, when businesses across the country will close and performances for Sheikh Khalifa will cease. Electronic billboards showed images of the late Sheikh in Dubai as the flag flew at half-staff on Friday night. A wider 40-day mourning period will extend beyond that.
Sheikh Mohammed has been the de facto president of the UAE since a stroke in 2014 that caused Sheikh Khalifa to disappear from public view.
Sheikh Mohammed, known by the acronym MbZ, has forged ties to the West that are valuable to the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi, whose oil and gas reserves hold a wealth fund of tens of billions of dollars. A U.S. diplomatic cable published by Wikileaks in 2004 described him as “charismatic, shrewd and very comfortable in the West”. In 2008, he hosted then-President George W. Bush at his desert estate, a visit that included a Bedouin tent and falcons.
The country is home to some 3,500 U.S. troops, many of whom are based at the Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, from where drones and fighter jets operate to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Dubai is also the busiest overseas port of call for the US Navy. France and South Korea also maintain a military presence here.
Sheikh Mohammed was trained as a helicopter pilot at the British Military Academy in Sandhurst. His military-first approach has seen the UAE, along with Saudi Arabia, wage a bloody, years-long war in Yemen that still rages today. Sheikh Mohammed has close ties to neighboring Saudi Arabia’s own upstart Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. However, the UAE has largely withdrawn its troops from Yemen.
Sheikh Mohammed, who has also long been skeptical of the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, may have organized a campaign against Emirati Islamists after the 2011 Arab Spring and urged the West to take a tougher stance on Tehran as they Concerns about its nuclear program and its support for Iran. Paramilitary groups throughout the region.UAE recognize israel 2020 can also act as a hedge against dealing with Iran while opening up new trade and tourism.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, however, the UAE under Sheikh Mohammed has been trying to restore ties with Iran and Turkey, which back Islamists in the region. While relations between Abu Dhabi and Doha remain icy, four Arab countries, including the UAE, have also dropped their boycott of Qatar, citing a diplomatic row over its support for Islamists.
“The smooth transition of power in the UAE reflects the sobriety of institutional work and the advanced level of governance mechanisms and their stability,” said Anwar Gargash, a senior UAE diplomat.
But in recent years, tensions have emerged between Sheikh Mohammed and the United States, which has long been the guarantor of broader Persian Gulf security. Then-President Barack Obama and world powers struck a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015, putting the UAE in a bind. A chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan under President Joe Biden in 2021 has fueled fears of a U.S. troop withdrawal from the region.
Sheikh Mohammed found himself embroiled in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report on then-President Donald Trump and Russian interference in the US 2016 election. The chairman of Trump’s 2017 inaugural committee has been arrested in 2021 on charges of secretly conspiring to influence U.S. policy to benefit the United Arab Emirates.
U.S. plans to sell advanced F-35 fighter jets to the UAE also appear to have stalled over U.S. concerns over the UAE’s relationship with China. Meanwhile, the UAE has been careful not to alienate Russia due to Moscow’s war on Ukraine.
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