UAE's long-ailing leader Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed dies, aged 73 & More Trending News

However, after struggling a stroke and present process emergency surgical procedure in 2014, a decade after turning into president, he ceased having any involvement within the day-to-day affairs of ruling the nation.

The final a number of years of his life noticed his half-brother Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed rise to turn out to be the de-factor ruler and decision-maker of main international coverage selections, similar to becoming a member of a Saudi-led battle in Yemen and spearheading an embargo on neighbouring Qatar in recent times.

The crown prince, additionally the deputy supreme commander of the armed forces, shepherded the UAE’s budding ties with Israel after the 2 normalized relations in 2020.

The UAE introduced a 40-day interval of mourning and a three-day suspension of labor throughout the federal government and personal sector, together with flags to be flown at half-staff.

There was no rapid announcement on a successor, though Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed is anticipated to assert the presidency at a time of excessive oil costs, which increase the UAE’s spending energy.

“The UAE has lost a loyal son, and the leader of its blessed empowerment journey,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed wrote on Twitter after his brother’s demise was formally introduced on state media. “Khalifa bin Zayed, my brother, supporter and mentor, may Allah Almighty grant you eternal peace.”

In a press release, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken described Sheikh Khalifa “as a true friend of the United States,” including that the US stays dedicated to its steadfast friendship and cooperation with the UAE. Vice President Kamala Harris additionally expressed her condolences.

Ties have been strained between the Biden administration and the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which haven’t joined US efforts in isolating Russia amid its battle in Ukraine.

Messages of condolences additionally poured in from across the area and the world, foremost from leaders of Arab international locations supported by Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Khalifa was the eldest son of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, broadly revered by Emiratis because the nation’s founding father. The federation lately marked its fiftieth anniversary.

Though he had been out of public sight since his stroke, Sheikh Khalifa’s picture was ubiquitous, gracing each resort foyer and main authorities workplace throughout the nation. On event, Emirati state media printed uncommon images and movies of Sheikh Khalifa.

The president holds essentially the most highly effective place among the many seven semi-autonomous city-states of the UAE, which stretches alongside the shores of the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Historically, the president is from Abu Dhabi, the biggest and richest of the seven emirates. The vice chairman and prime minister is from Dubai, titles at the moment held by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Despite its dimension and wealth, Abu Dhabi typically finds itself overshadowed by the glitzy emirate of Dubai, the business hub that showcases each the UAE’s daring visions and, at instances, debt-fueled pipe desires, together with an enormous palm-shaped man-made island that sits empty years after its development.

The UAE’s regional energy and affect, nevertheless, emanates from Abu Dhabi, which has a lot of the nation’s oil and fuel reserves. Dubai supplies the UAE with a swirl of publicity and headline-grabbing life-style and leisure tales that rights teams say distract from controversial insurance policies determined in Abu Dhabi.

As Dubai’s fortunes started to falter together with the worldwide economic system in 2009, Sheikh Khalifa led efforts to guard the federation by pumping billions of {dollars} in emergency bailout funds to Dubai. The two emirates don’t at all times see eye-to-eye on international coverage selections and compete commercially with each other. In 2003, Sheikh Khalifa ordered the creation of a brand new airline, Etihad Airways, which competes with Dubai’s a lot bigger Emirates Air.

Sheikh Khalifa more and more used Abu Dhabi’s oil wealth to draw cultural and tutorial facilities, similar to a department of the Louvre Museum and satellite tv for pc campuses of New York University and the Sorbonne. He additionally presided over efforts to maneuver the OPEC nation past its reliance on petrodollars with investments in renewable vitality analysis. The UAE introduced final yr a net-zero emissions pledge by 2050, even because it expands investments in oil and fuel for export.

He has been credited with overseeing the creation and progress of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, now one of many world’s largest sovereign wealth funds with near $700 billion in property, in keeping with estimates by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute.

Sheikh Khalifa was born in 1948 within the inland oasis of Al Ain, close to the border with the sultanate of Oman. He was educated at Sandhurst, the royal army academy in England.

In 1969, Sheikh Khalifa was named as Abu Dhabi prime minister and chairman of the emirate’s Department of Defense, which later grew to become the core of the UAE’s armed forces.

Khalifa helped increase the UAE’s regional profile by bulking up its army with hefty purchases from US weapons producers. He set warplanes to the NATO-led mission towards Moammar Gadhafi’s regime in Libya in 2011. In 2014, the Emirates grew to become probably the most outstanding Arab members in U.S.-led airstrikes towards the militant Islamic State group in Syria.

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin stated the US will honor Sheikh Khalifa’s legacy “through our strong defense partnership with the United Arab Emirates.”

The head of US Central Command within the Mideast, Gen. Michael Kurilla, stated “the strategic partnership between the armed forces of our two countries is ironclad.” He’d held a gathering in Abu Dhabi with its crown prince the day earlier than Sheikh Khalifa’s demise.

Although the UAE’s ruling sheikhs maintain close to absolute energy, Sheikh Khalifa started an experiment with elections by permitting restricted voting — by a hand-picked voters — for half the members of a 40-seat federal advisory physique in 2006. Subsequent rounds of elections in 2011 and 2015 failed to draw even two out of 5 of these given an opportunity to vote.

The UAE noticed not one of the Arab Spring road protests that shook different elements of the area, although within the wake of that unrest, Sheikh Khalifa oversaw crackdowns on Islamists and different activists within the nation, drawing criticism from worldwide rights teams. The UAE, which views Islamist actions as a menace to its ruling system, additionally supported efforts within the area to quash the Muslim (*73*), together with in Egypt.

Under his presidency, the UAE joined Saudi Arabia in sending forces to Bahrain to quell an rebellion there by the nation’s majority Shiite inhabitants demanding better rights from the island-nation’s Sunni management.

Questions have been raised throughout Khalifa’s rule in regards to the UAE’s use of international army contractors, together with one linked to the founding father of the previous Blackwater safety agency, Erik Prince, who moved to Abu Dhabi in 2009.

A U.S. diplomatic cable made public by WikiLeaks in 2010 uncharitably described the president as “a distant and uncharismatic personage.”

Sheikh Khalifa was believed to be among the many world’s richest rulers with a private fortune estimated by Forbes journal in 2008 at $19 billion. He constructed a palace within the Seychelles, an island-chain nation within the Indian Ocean, and confronted complaints there about inflicting water air pollution from the development website.

His private life was not a lot within the public eye. Like many within the Gulf Arab states, he was passionate in regards to the conventional sport of falconry and was stated to get pleasure from fishing. He is understood to have had eight youngsters — two sons and 6 daughters — along with his first spouse, Sheikha Shamsa bint Suhail Al Mazrouei. He can be survived by a number of grandchildren.