Who is Mohammed bin Zayed?
As crown prince of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, known as MBZ, is one of the most powerful leaders in the Middle East. Jutting out from the southeastern edge of Saudi Arabia, the UAE is a tiny federation of city-states, home to 1 million citizens and 8 million foreign workers. But it sits in a strategically crucial spot opposite Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf through which much of the world’s oil is exported. The UAE was founded 49 years ago by MBZ’s father, Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, and in that time the Sunni Muslim nation has transformed from the desert home of squabbling Bedouin tribes into an oil and natural gas powerhouse and global business hub. MBZ, 59, controls a sovereign wealth fund of $1.3 trillion and has made it his mission to contain Shiite Iran and to crush any form of populist Islamism—particularly the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood—that might endanger the rule of Arab monarchies.
How is MBZ taking on those threats?
MBZ has spent hundreds of billions of dollars building the most advanced military in the Arab world, leading U.S. officials to nickname the UAE “Little Sparta.” The UAE has an arsenal of American weaponry; an army led by former U.S. officers and bulked up with Colombian, South African, and other mercenaries; and a high-tech intelligence service shaped by ex–U.S. spies. MBZ has used the military freely, most prominently to wage war alongside the Saudis against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen. In Libya, MBZ has violated a United Nations embargo by sending arms, air support, and Sudanese fighters to warlord Khalifa Haftar, who is battling the Turkish-backed, Islamist-dominated central government. In Syria, he has sought to help Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in his war on Turkish-supported Islamist rebels. “We have created a little Frankenstein,” says
Tamara Cofman Wittes, a fellow at the
Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Is he close with the Saudis?
MBZ is considered the true force behind the rise of Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s 35-year-old de facto ruler. When bin Salman ousted and succeeded his cousin Mohammed bin Nayef as crown prince in 2017 and then purged all those loyal to the previous leadership—detaining hundreds of officials and members of the royal family—it was MBZ who was whispering in his ear. MBZ then convinced Washington that bin Salman was a man they could deal with. The relationship, says William Law, editor of Arab Digest, is “one where MBZ exploits the immaturity, the arrogance, and the ambition of MBS to achieve his ends.” Bin Zayed helped push Saudi Arabia to invade Yemen in 2015, for example, and
A Kushner-backed blockade
The time line of the UAE and Saudi Arabia’s blockade of Qatar correlates curiously with the business needs of Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and adviser. In 2007, Kushner purchased the 666 Fifth Avenue building in Manhattan for a record $1.8 billion. But when the economy crashed the following year, the Kushner family business was left struggling to cover its massive debt on the property. In 2017—just weeks after the family failed to secure a deal with Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund to bail out 666 Fifth Avenue—Kushner reportedly advised Trump to back the SaudiUAE blockade of Qatar. A year later, a financial company tied to Qatar took a 99-year lease on the Kushners’ troubled building, paying the rent for the entire term up front. Democrats in Congress last week launched an investigation into whether Kushner’s quest for a bailout influenced Trump’s decision to support the blockade. A spokesman for Kushner has previously dismissed such allegations as “fantasy.”