U.A.E. leader helped fulfil father's desire

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who has died aged 73, was the pro-western ruler of Abu Dhabi and the second president of the United Arab Emirates, the oil-rich federation of seven emirates at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula; he spent much of his adult life in the shadow of his father, Sheikh Zayed, a visionary figure who in less than a generation had led the desert emirate out of poverty through oil wealth.

According to Forbes magazine, Khalifa was among the world's wealthiest monarchs, controlling some 97 billion barrels of oil reserves. The world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa in the neighbouring emirate of Dubai, was renamed in his honour when it opened in 2010 after he and his brothers lent $9.6 billion pounds to bail out the city state.

Already a grandfather when he succeeded his father, Khalifa had a well-earned reputation as a competent administrator, having been a shrewd understudy to his father, who pursued consensus rather than conflict in building up alliances within the Bedouin tribes.

He had been recognized as Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi in 1969, when he was named to head the defence department of the emirate, still managed by expatriate ex-British army officers from the former Trucial Scouts. On the formation of the U.A.E. in December 1971 he was in the ascendant, with control of finance and defence in the emirate government.

As head of Abu Dhabi's Supreme Petroleum Council, Khalifa held the key to policy-making in energy matters. With 90 per cent of the U.A.E.'s oil wealth, Abu Dhabi dictates the country's energy-pricing strategy. And with revenues growing year-by-year as oil production increased, a program of construction rapidly got underway involving schools, housing, hospitals and roads. By 2021 the country's population had grown from 200,000 at the time of independence to 9.9 million.

Khalifa's principal task was to create a modern infrastructure for Abu Dhabi and help to fulfil his father's desire to create a “green city” for which he imported hundreds of thousands of trees and plants. Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan was born on Sept. 7, 1948, in the oasis town of Al Ain. He was the son of Hassa bint Mohammad and her husband Zayed bin Sultan, governor of Abu Dhabi's eastern region. Mohammed bin Zayed, Khalifa's half-brother, succeeds Khalifa as president of the U.A.E. and ruler of Abu Dhabi.

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan