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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – On Wednesday, United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan named his eldest son, Khaled, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince, who has named him as the next candidate to succeed Abu Dhabi as leader of the federation.
The state-run WAM news agency announced the appointment of Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as crown prince late Wednesday, without providing further details.
After Sheikh Mohammed, better known as MBZ, 62, ascended to the presidency last year, rumors swirled about whether he would make one of his brothers his heir apparent.
In that case, the frontrunners would be the powerful national security chief Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, Manchester City FC owner Sheikh Mansour or foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah dura.
Instead, he appears to be concentrating power on his immediate family, as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has done, delegating broad powers to his son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS).
Another announcement said Sheikh Mohammed had appointed Sheikh Mansour as the UAE’s vice president with the approval of the Federal Supreme Council. Sheikh Tahnoun and another brother, Sheikh Hazza, were named deputy rulers of Abu Dhabi.
The new crown prince, Sheikh Khaled, 41, has made a name for himself in the country’s national security establishment and chairs the powerful Abu Dhabi executive office.
The United Arab Emirates, a close ally of the United States, is best known as the home of Dubai, a major international business and tourism hub.
The federation of seven emirates, including oil-rich Abu Dhabi, has rapidly transformed over the past half century from a desert region sparsely populated by Bedouin tribes into a political and economic powerhouse with the most advanced infrastructure, including on the tallest skyscraper.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan was the UAE’s first president and the driving force behind its creation, ruling from 1971 until his death in 2004. He named his eldest son, Khalifa, as his successor and MBZ as deputy crown prince.
Sheikh Mohammed has been the country’s de facto leader since Sheikh Khalifa suffered a stroke in 2014. Sheikh Khalifa, who was named after the world’s largest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, died eight years later in May 2022.
During Sheikh Mohammed’s rule, the UAE forged close ties with neighboring Saudi Arabia, initially joining its war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen before largely withdrawing from the conflict years later. The UAE has been trying to project military power in the region as it opposes the rise of Islamic groups.
In 2020, the UAE first normalized relations with Israel in the so-called Abraham Accords, followed by Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The UAE and other Gulf Arab states had quietly maintained ties to Israel for years before this, brought together by mutual suspicion of Iran.
The UAE hosts about 3,500 U.S. troops, many of them based at the Al-Dhafra air base in Abu Dhabi, from which drones and fighter jets are deployed to fight the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Dubai is the U.S. Navy’s busiest overseas port of call.
But in recent years there have been tensions between Sheikh Mohammed and the United States, long the guarantor of security for the wider Persian Gulf region. The UAE and Saudi Arabia were appalled by the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran, the US and other world powers. A chaotic U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 has further fueled concerns about a U.S. troop withdrawal from the region.
A planned U.S. sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to the UAE appears to be on hold, in part because of U.S. concerns over the UAE’s relationship with China. Meanwhile, the UAE has been careful not to alienate Russia as Moscow wages war on Ukraine.
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