Sheikh Mohammed, UAE Prime Minister, names eldest son as successor

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates, on Wednesday named his eldest son Khaled Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, placing him next in line to lead the federation.

State news agency WAM announced the appointment of Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan as crown prince late on Wednesday, without giving further details.

After Sheikh Mohammed, 62, commonly known as MBZ, ascended to the presidency last year, rumors circulated about whether he would make one of his brothers his heir.

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In this case, the front-runners would have been Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed, the powerful national security chief Sheikh Mansour, owner of Manchester City Football Club, or Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah.

Instead, he appears to be concentrating power within his immediate family, as Saudi Arabia’s King Salman did, delegating sweeping powers to his son and heir, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS.

A separate announcement said Sheikh Mohammed had appointed Sheikh Mansour as Vice President of the UAE with the approval of the Supreme Federal Council. Sheikh Tahnoun and another brother, Sheikh Hazza, were appointed Deputy Rulers of Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Khaled, 41, the new crown prince, has made a name for himself in the country’s state security service and as chairman of Abu Dhabi’s powerful executive office.

A close ally of the US, the United Arab Emirates is best known for being the home of Dubai, a major international hub for business travel and travel.

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 state-of-the-art infrastructure, including the world’s tallest skyscraper.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s first President and the driving force behind its establishment, ruled from 1971 until his death in 2004. He appointed his eldest son Khalifa as his successor and MBZ as Deputy Crown Prince.

Sheikh Mohammed has been the de facto leader of the nation since Sheikh Khalifa suffered a stroke in 2014. Sheikh Khalifa, after whom the world’s tallest skyscraper, the Burj Khalifa, is named, died eight years later, in May 2022.

During Sheikh Mohammed’s rule, the UAE maintained close ties with neighboring Saudi Arabia, initially joining him in its war against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen before largely ending the conflict years later. The UAE has sought to project military power across the region as it has resisted the rise of Islamist groups.

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In 2020, the UAE normalized ties with Israel in the first of the so-called Abraham Accords, followed by Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan. The United Arab Emirates and other Gulf Arab states had previously maintained tacit ties with Israel for years, drawn together by mutual distrust of Iran.

The UAE hosts around 3,500 US troops, many at Al-Dhafra Air Base in Abu Dhabi, from where drones and warplanes have flown missions to counter the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria. Dubai is the US Navy’s busiest port of call overseas.

But in recent years tensions have arisen between Sheikh Mohammed and the US, which has long been a guarantor of security in the wider Persian Gulf. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia were alarmed by the 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran, the US and other world powers. The chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 further fueled fears that the US would withdraw from the region.

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A proposed US sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to the UAE appears to have stalled in part because of American concerns over the Emirates’ relationship with China. Meanwhile, the UAE has been careful not to alienate Russia as Moscow wages war on Ukraine.