The United Arab Emirates’ longtime de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been elected as president on Saturday a day after the death of its former leader.
Sheikh Mohamed was elected by the Federal Supreme Council, the state-run WAM news agency said, after years of calling the shots from behind the scenes while his half-brother President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan was sidelined by poor health.
The rulers of the UAE’s seven sheikhdoms made the decision at a meeting. It comes after Sheikh Khalifa died on Friday at age 73.
After his election, Mohamed expressed appreciation of the “precious trust” placed in him by members of the council.
It described the vote as unanimous among the rulers of the country’s sheikhdoms, which also includes the skyscraper-studded city of Dubai.
Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said on Twitter after the vote.
“We congratulate him and we pledge allegiance to him, and our people pledge allegiance to him,” The whole country is led by him to take it on the paths of glory and honour, God willing.”
About Sheikh Mohamed
Widely known as MBZ, Sheikh Mohamed is one of the Arab world’s most powerful leaders. A graduate of Britain’s Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, he commands one of the best-equipped armies in the Gulf region.
Working behind the scenes for years as de facto leader, Sheikh Mohamed, 61, transformed the UAE military into a high-tech force, which coupled with its oil wealth and business hub status, extended Emirati influence internationally.
Sheikh Mohamed began wielding power in a period when his half-brother Sheikh Khalifa suffered bouts of illness, including a stroke in 2014. Under his low-key direction, the UAE has put a man in space, sent a probe to Mars, and opened its first nuclear reactor.
Kristin Diwan, senior resident scholar at Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington noted that Mohammed bin Zayed has set not only the future course for the UAE but for much of the Gulf in his approach to state building and power projection
“The future direction under him is set and is mirrored in other Gulf leaders adopting state-led and globally-oriented economic diversification and a more assertive foreign policy that looks beyond the Gulf and traditional partners.”
MBZ led a realignment of the Middle East that created a new anti-Iran axis with Israel. He also bolstered the military might of the UAE which, coupled with its oil wealth and business hub status, extended Emirati influence in the region and beyond.
Under his leadership, the UAE took on a more military-focused approach in the region, joining Saudi Arabia in their bloody, years-long war in Yemen that still rages to this day.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, the UAE under Sheikh Mohamed’s leadership has sought to rehabilitate ties with Iran and Turkey.
He was first Gulf leader to strike a deal normalising relation with Israel, breaking with the decades-old Arab League consensus to isolate Israel until it agrees to the establishment of Palestinian state.
Officially it was Sheikh Khalifa who issued a 2020 decree formally ending a law on the boycott of Israel, yet it was Sheikh Mohamed who was thanked for pushing it forward.
Later in 2020, the UAE and Bahrain became the first Gulf countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel through US-brokered pacts in what was a major diplomatic shift in the region.
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