PRINCE CHARLES, CAMILLA VISIT ABU DHABI MOSQUE
ABU DHABI: Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla arrived yesterday in the United Arab Emirates as part of their three-nation tour of the Gulf, visiting a landmark mosque in the country’s capital. The royal couple toured the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi, with Camilla wearing a blue scarf over her hair in a sign of respect. They walked over the mosque’s gleaming white marble floor as Emirati officials accompanied them. They gazed upon the 99 names of God in Arabic adorning the mosque’s inner wall, and later met with religious leaders of various faiths.
The oil-rich UAE, a country of seven sheikhdoms that is home to Dubai, was overseen by the British when it was known as the Trucial States. The UAE became a unified, independent nation in 1971. The two had just arrived from neighboring Oman, where they began their weeklong trip.
On Saturday night, the state-run Oman News Agency reported that Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who has ruled the country on the eastern edge of the Arabian Peninsula since 1970, met with the royals.
The royals discussed “cooperation between their countries in various sectors to achieve the joint interests of the Omani and British people” as well as ways to strengthen relations between them. Journalists traveling with the royal couple did not attend the meeting with the monarch. Prince Charles and Camilla will later travel to Bahrain.