Friday, July 11, 2025
  • Who’sWho Africa AWARDS
  • About Time Africa Magazine
  • Contact Us
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
  • Home
  • Magazine
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • World News
    • US
    • UAE
    • Europe
    • UK
    • Israel-Hamas
    • Russia-Ukraine
  • Politics
  • Crime
  • Lifestyle
  • Sports
  • Column
  • Interviews
  • Special Report
No Result
View All Result
Time Africa Magazine
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
  • News
  • Magazine
  • World News

Home » Featured » Who is Mohamed bin Zayed, the UAE’s new president

Who is Mohamed bin Zayed, the UAE’s new president

Longtime de facto ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan elected UAE president after the death of Sheikh Khalifa.

May 15, 2022
in Featured, World News
0
UAE's newly elected ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan [File Bandar AlgaloudSaudi Royal Court via Reuters]

UAE's newly elected ruler Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan [File Bandar AlgaloudSaudi Royal Court via Reuters]

542
SHARES
4.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

United Arab Emirates strongman Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ), who was formally elected president on Saturday, has led a realignment of the Middle East that created a new anti-Iran axis with Israel and fought a rising tide of political Islam in the region.

Working behind the scenes for years as de facto leader, Sheikh Mohammed, 61, transformed the UAE military into a high-tech force, which coupled with its oil wealth and business hub status, extended Emirati influence internationally.

Mohamed began wielding power in a period when his half-brother President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, who died on Friday, suffered bouts of illness, including a stroke in 2014.

MBZ, as he is known, was driven by a “certain fatalistic line of thinking” that Gulf Arab rulers could no longer rely on their main supporter the United States, according to former US envoy to the UAE Barbara Leaf, especially after Washington abandoned Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak during the 2011 Arab Spring.

From his power base in the capital Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohamed issued a “calm and cold” warning to then President Barack Obama not to back uprisings that could spread and endanger Gulf dynastic rule, according to Obama’s memoir, which described MBZ as the “savviest” Gulf leader.

ReadAlso

Two women executed in UAE, Many More Facing Death Sentence

UAE to expand $1 trillion partnership with U.S. through AI, Investment

A US State Department official serving in the Biden administration, which has had fraught ties with the UAE in recent months, described him as a strategist who brings historical perspective to discussions.

“He will talk not only about the present, but go back years, decades, in some cases, speaking to trends over time,” the official said.

ADVERTISEMENT

MBZ backed the 2013 military overthrow of Egypt’s elected Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi, and championed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he rose to power in a 2017 palace coup, touting him as a man Washington could deal with and the only one able to open up the kingdom.

Encouraged by warm ties with the then US President Donald Trump, the two Gulf hawks lobbied for Washington’s maximum pressure campaign on Iran, boycotted neighbouring Qatar for supporting the Muslim Brotherhood, and launched a costly war to try to break the grip of Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis.

The UAE also waded into conflicts from Somalia to Libya and Sudan before upending decades of Arab consensus by forging ties with Israel in 2020, along with Bahrain, in US-brokered deals known as the Abraham Accords that drew Palestinian ire.

The accords were driven by shared concerns over Iran but also perceived benefits to the UAE economy and fatigue with a Palestinian leadership “that doesn’t listen”, said one diplomat.

Tactical thinker

While diplomats and analysts see the alliance with Riyadh and Washington as a pillar of UAE strategy, MBZ has not hesitated to move independently when interests or economic reasons dictate.

The Ukraine crisis exposed strains with Washington when the UAE abstained from a UN Security Council vote condemning Russia’s invasion. As an OPEC producer, along with oil titan Riyadh, the UAE also rebuffed Western calls to pump more.

Abu Dhabi has ignored other US concerns by arming and backing Libya’s Khalifa Haftar against the internationally recognised government and engaging with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad.

With Riyadh, the biggest divergence came when the UAE largely withdrew from Yemen as the unpopular war, in which more than 100 Emiratis died, got mired in military deadlock.

When Sudan’s President Omar Hassan al-Bashir reneged on a promise to abandon Islamist allies, Abu Dhabi orchestrated the 2019 coup against him.

Although he says he was attracted to their ideology in his youth, MBZ has framed the Muslim Brotherhood as one of the gravest threats to stability in the Middle East.

Like Saudi Arabia, the UAE accuses the Brotherhood of betrayal after it sheltered members persecuted in Egypt in the 1960s, only to see them work for change in their host countries.

“I am an Arab, I am a Muslim, and I pray. And in the 1970s and early 1980s I was one of them. I believe these guys have an agenda,” MBZ said in a 2007 meeting with US officials, according to Wikileaks.

Educated in the UK

Educated in the UAE and the military officers’ college at Sandhurst in the UK, Sheikh Mohamed’s mistrust of the group heightened after 2001, when two of his countrymen were among the 19 hijackers in the September 11 attacks on the United States.

“He looked around and saw that many of the younger generation in the region were very attracted to Osama bin Laden’s anti-Western mantra,” another diplomat said. “As he once said to me: ‘If they can do it to you, they can do it to us.’”

Despite years of enmity, MBZ chose to engage with Iran and Turkey as COVID-19 and rising economic competition with Saudi Arabia turned focus to development, pushing the UAE towards further liberalisation while keeping a lid on political dissent.

Seen as a moderniser at home and a charismatic people’s man by many diplomats, MBZ doggedly promoted the previously low-profile Abu Dhabi, which holds the UAE’s oil wealth, by spurring development in energy, infrastructure and technology.

As deputy supreme commander of armed forces he was credited with turning the UAE military into one of the most effective in the Arab world, according to experts who say he instituted military service to instil nationalism rather than entitlement among an affluent population.

“He doesn’t beat around the bush … he wants to know what isn’t working well, not just what’s working,” said a source with access to Sheikh Mohamed.

Aljazeera

Tags: UAE
ADVERTISEMENT
Previous Post

Energy breakthrough: UK opens ‘world’s first’ centre to develop new ‘inexhaustible’ power

Next Post

Putin ‘very ill with blood cancer’ claims Russian oligarch in recording ‘Hope he dies’

You MayAlso Like

US

Putin, Undeterred by Trump’s Words, Escalates His War Against Ukraine

July 9, 2025
World News

BRICS summit in Brazil tries to reinvent collective approach to world’s problems

July 7, 2025
US

Donald Trump reignites feud with ‘trainwreck’ Elon Musk

July 7, 2025
US

Elon Musk sets up new political party in wake of falling-out with Trump

July 6, 2025
Featured

The Sheikh Who Conquered Soccer and Coddles Warlords

July 4, 2025
Featured

Trump Plans to Deport Elon Musk and Zohran Mamdani

July 4, 2025
Next Post
Speculation surrounding the Russian leader's health has been widespread (Image: Getty)

Putin 'very ill with blood cancer' claims Russian oligarch in recording 'Hope he dies'

Mr Patrushev is known as a “Kremlin hawk”, being at the heart of all political decisions (Image GETTY)

Putin ill: Patrushev, Russia's "worst option" may be in charge

Discussion about this post

Why Igbos Must Stop Storing Corpses in Mortuaries — Ogilisi Igbo Speaks Out

OPINION |  Senate Rebels Against Court in Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan Case: A Constitutional Timebomb

Tinubu’s end game on Fubara

The Real Story Behind Campaign to Silence Delta State Polytechnic Rector Emmanuel Achuenu

BRICS summit in Brazil tries to reinvent collective approach to world’s problems

Enugu Announces Date for 2026 Tech Festival

  • British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

    1238 shares
    Share 495 Tweet 310
  • Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

    1064 shares
    Share 426 Tweet 266
  • Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

    967 shares
    Share 387 Tweet 242
  • ‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

    902 shares
    Share 360 Tweet 225
  • Crisis echoes, fears grow in Amechi Awkunanaw in Enugu State

    735 shares
    Share 294 Tweet 184
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

British government apologizes to Peter Obi, as hired impostors, master manipulators on rampage abroad

April 13, 2023

Maids trafficked and sold to wealthy Saudis on black market

December 27, 2022
Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

Flight Attendant Sees Late Husband On Plane

September 22, 2023
‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

‘Céline Dion Dead 2023’: Singer killed By Internet Death Hoax

March 21, 2023
Chief Mrs Ebelechukwu, wife of Willie Obiano, former governor of Anambra state

NIGERIA: No, wife of Biafran warlord, Bianca Ojukwu lied – Ebele Obiano:

0

SOUTH AFRICA: TO LEAVE OR NOT TO LEAVE?

0
kelechi iheanacho

TOP SCORER: IHEANACHA

0
Goodluck Ebele Jonathan

WHAT CAN’TBE TAKEN AWAY FROM JONATHAN

0

Enugu Announces Date for 2026 Tech Festival

July 11, 2025

Delta State Polytechnic Governing Council Chairman Plummet into Infamy

July 11, 2025

C-section Births Can Increase Risk of Childhood Cancers —Researchers Reveal

July 9, 2025

Putin, Undeterred by Trump’s Words, Escalates His War Against Ukraine

July 9, 2025

ABOUT US

Time Africa Magazine

TIME AFRICA MAGAZINE is an African Magazine with a culture of excellence; a magazine without peer. Nearly a third of its readers hold advanced degrees and include novelists, … READ MORE >>

SECTIONS

  • Aviation
  • Column
  • Crime
  • Europe
  • Featured
  • Gallery
  • Health
  • Interviews
  • Israel-Hamas
  • Lifestyle
  • Magazine
  • Middle-East
  • News
  • Politics
  • Press Release
  • Russia-Ukraine
  • Science
  • Special Report
  • Sports
  • TV/Radio
  • UAE
  • UK
  • US
  • World News

Useful Links

  • AllAfrica
  • Channel Africa
  • El Khabar
  • The Guardian
  • Cairo Live
  • Le Republicain
  • Magazine: 9771144975608
  • Subscribe to TIME AFRICA biweekly news magazine

    Enjoy handpicked stories from around African continent,
    delivered anywhere in the world

    Subscribe

    • About Time Africa Magazine
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS

    © 2025 Time Africa Magazine - All Right Reserved. Time Africa is a trademark of Times Associates, registered in the U.S, & Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    No Result
    View All Result
    • WHO’SWHO AWARDS
    • Politics
    • Column
    • Interviews
    • Gallery
    • Lifestyle
    • Special Report
    • Sports
    • TV/Radio
    • Aviation
    • Health
    • Science
    • World News

    © 2025 Time Africa Magazine - All Right Reserved. Time Africa is a trademark of Times Associates, registered in the U.S, & Nigeria. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Service.

    This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.