United Arab Emirates

United Arab Emirates An independent federation of relatively autonomous states founded in 1971, consisting of the emirates Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quaiwain, Fujairah, and Ras al-Khaimah (joined 1972). Before this, they had been known as the Trucial States, a term which derived from the perpetual truce which their rulers concluded with Britain to abstain from piracy in 1853. Under British military protection since 1893, a federal agreement was concluded in 1968 which originally included the emirates of Bahrain and Qatar, but these eventually decided not to join. Upon independence in 1971, the federation was governed by the Emir of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan (b. 1918), as President of the Supreme Council. As the world's eighth largest oil producer, the UAE advanced to become one of the wealthiest countries in the world during the 1970s and 1980s. As a result, its social structure has been dominated by the tension between the continued conservative tribalism of its native population and the majority of its population, which were immigrants. One of the leading advocates of an anti-Iraq coalition in the Gulf War, its relations with Iran were equally poor. In 1992 Iran occupied the island of Abu Musa, which both countries had administered in cooperation until then. By contrast, the United Arab Emirates agreed peacefully to settle a border dispute with neighbouring Qatar in 1999.