Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan… "Hakim Al-Arab", the architect of the Gulf Cooperation Council and the first Arab federation

The United Arab Emirates enjoys special importance in contemporary Arab studies, as it represents an important link in Arab and international politics, because of its political, security and economic developments in the region, and it is one of the promising countries in the field of comprehensive development, the United Arab Emirates has honorable positions in managing crises and conflicts between the Gulf Cooperation States and Arab and Islamic countries, and these fixed positions and firm principles have been drawn to express the authenticity of these authentic Arab people and their wise leadership that has done its best to solve Arab political, military, economic and development problems. No Arab country has a conflict, conflict or crisis emerged, and the leadership of the people of the United Arab Emirates is strongly present.

Sheikh Zayed has deserved the title of "the wise of the Arabs", and it seems that the wisdom of opinion has accompanied him from the beginning, producing positions full of effort and activity, and what we seek in this reading is to reveal the leading role and honorable positions of the United Arab Emirates in managing Arab crises.

- First federal state in the Arabian Peninsula

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Zayed bin Khalifa bin Shakhbout bin Theyab bin Isa bin Nahyan Al Nahyan (6 May 1918 - 2 November 2004) was the first president of the United Arab Emirates who had a major role in unifying the state with Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum and achieved this on 2 December 1971 and founded the first modern Arab federation, based on justice, equality and development, and was able during his reign to create loyalty to the federal entity instead of loyalty to the tribe or emirate. And to consolidate the concept of rights and duties of the citizen.

Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan in 1953, Zayed began a trip around the world in which he enhances his political experience, and through which he learns about other experiences of governance and living, so he visited Britain, then the United States, Switzerland, Lebanon, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, India, Pakistan and France, and this experience increased his conviction of the need to develop life in the UAE, and advance it as soon as possible to catch up with those countries.

In May 1962, faced with enormous pressure received by Sheikh Shakhbout, he decided to allow Sheikh Zayed to help him manage the affairs of Abu Dhabi, so Sheikh Zayed sought for four years from 1962 to 1966 to improve the conditions in the emirate on the one hand and move forward with determination and determination in implementing his development program on the other. Sheikh Zayed assumed the reins of power in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi on August 6, 1966 with the unanimous approval of the ruling family, succeeding his brother Sheikh Shakhbout bin Sultan Al Nahyan. Sheikh Zayed was able to achieve broad reforms, including the development and modernization of the education, health care and public housing sectors, and the development of cities in general. Sheikh Zayed ended a long era of entrenched hostility between Abu Dhabi and Qatar.

One of his first decisions was to issue a decree to issue postage stamps. Sheikh Zayed also built state institutions from an administrative system and government departments, in which he relied on elements of the ruling family and from outside the family. It also provided educational opportunities for thousands of students that enabled them to enroll in the best universities abroad.

In 1965, he established a development office in Dubai to which Britain contributed half a million pounds. The Development Office reports to departments that later became the nucleus of the Federal Government and its future Ministry. These departments are: Department of Agriculture and Livestock, Department of Technical Education, Department of Missions, Department of Health, Department of Public Works and Department of Fisheries. When Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan took over the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, he gave £2 million. This amount provided by Abu Dhabi was half of the Office's budget this year. In 1968, Abu Dhabi contributed 90% of this budget. The following year (1969), Abu Dhabi bore 95% of the office's budget.

Sheikh Zayed was the first to call for unity after the British announcement of the intention of the occupation to evacuate the Emirates in January 1968 by 1971, and he saw the need to establish a unified political entity with a strong and audible word in international forums, and capable of providing a better life for his citizens. The shuttle movement of Sheikh Zayed began and the meeting (Al-Samha) was the first seed for building the union, where it was agreed to coordinate security, defense, foreign affairs, health and educational services and the unification of passports between the two sisters, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

In 1969, he was elected President of the Ninth Union, which included the seven Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain, and with the withdrawal of the latter two were announced the establishment of the United Arab Emirates on December 2, 1971 with six emirates joined by Ras Al Khaimah on February 10, 1972 to complete the quorum and joy spread throughout the country, and was elected President of the Union and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. Zayed worked on building federal institutions and building the armed forces.

Claude Morris says in his book (Desert Falcon) in the words of Colonel Hughbosted, the British political representative who lived for a long time in the region, as Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, saying, "I have always been amazed by the crowds that always gather around Sheikh Zayed and surround him with respect and attention, and he has cut springs to increase water to irrigate orchards, and Sheikh Zayed embodied the power with his fellow Arabs of the Badia, who used to share with them digging wells, constructing buildings, improving the water of al-aflaj, sitting with them and participating fully in their livelihood and in their simplicity as a man. A democrat who does not know arrogance or arrogance, and during the years of his rule in Al Ain he created the personality of a national leader in addition to the personality of a tribal sheikh who is already qualified to assume the necessary leadership responsibilities."

- The leading role of the establishment of the Gulf Cooperation Council

Sheikh Zayed worked with Sheikh Jabber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah to establish the Gulf Cooperation Council and on May 25, 1981, Abu Dhabi hosted the first summit meeting of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf. He succeeded his brother Shakhbout in 1966, succeeded by his son Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and was elected President of the Federal Supreme Council by the Federal Supreme Council.

The Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Sheikh Zayed and Sheikh Jabber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah had a unitary orientation that began with the idea of establishing the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and this was achieved on May 25, 1981 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Zayed was unanimously chosen as the first president of the Supreme Council of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf and the first head of state to sign the council's charter.

- Sheikh Zayed and the management of disputes with neighboring Arab countries 

He established a distinguished foreign policy characterized by wisdom, moderation, balance, advocacy of truth and justice, and the primacy of the language of dialogue and understanding in addressing all issues as it was based on peace, based on his belief that peace is an urgent need for all humanity.

Sheikh Zayed with King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud 1974 There were some border disputes with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and were resolved only by direct contacts between Sheikh Zayed and King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz, where the two sides reached the signing of a treaty in 1974, which drew the border between the two countries.

He also helped as a peace mediator between Oman and the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen during border disputes in 1980 and also succeeded in resolving a dispute between Egypt and Libya.

- UAE positions with the Palestinian cause 

On the seventeenth of December 1991, the United Arab Emirates was one of the countries that voted against the abolition of United Nations Resolution No. 2279, which states that Zionism is a form of racism, and the UAE refused to participate in the Economic Conference on the Development of the Middle East and North Africa held in Doha in 1997, despite American pressure that was pushing to participate in this conference. 

The United Arab Emirates had a clear and explicit position towards Palestinian rights and the right to self-defense, and its continuous call for the United States to play the role of an honest broker in peace negotiations, and not to apply double standards in the fight against international terrorism with regard to the Zionist practice against the Palestinians, which fully coincided with his foreign policy orientations.

The UAE was and still is a pioneer of goodness and righteousness under the leadership of the late founder Hakim Al Arab, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who rode on the back of glory, and his successor, the distinguished leader, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who raised a crown of eternity and glory crowned by his country in the context of solidarity and cooperation, faith in man, peoples, homelands, and their pride and dignity. The United Arab Emirates has always devoted its efforts and capabilities to the advancement of the fraternal Palestinian reality, which is part of its right approach. The United Arab Emirates was one of the first Arab countries to support the Palestinian cause, in an initiative to recognize the State of Palestine immediately after its declaration on November 15, 1988.

Today, the UAE plays an active role in the region and the world and contributes with its constructive opinions, proposals and positions in support of just causes and the promotion of the principle of solidarity among peoples. One of these important and historical positions of the UAE is that it has always been by the side of the Palestinian leadership during the era of the late President Yasser Arafat, and it is keen on the depth of the Palestinian-Emirati relationship with support and assistance, as the UAE government and people have always called on the world to take a serious position towards the Palestinian cause, by liberating the people and the land and establishing their independent Palestinian state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, stressing its continuous support through its internationally declared positions for the just struggle to end the Israeli occupation, and for the people to obtain their freedom and independence.

- The UAE and the use of petroleum weapons in the face of the flow of weapons on the US airlift to Israel

King Faisal bin Abdul Aziz and Sheikh Zayed were the first to use the oil weapon as a weapon in the face of the flow of weapons on the US airlift to Israel, and in an attempt on his part to change the course of the battle, which affected the international position in favor of the Arabs, as Sheikh Zayed sent the Minister of Petroleum in the UAE to the Conference of Arab Petroleum Ministers, to discuss the use of petroleum in the battle. While the Arab ministers issued their decision to reduce production by 5% every month, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan said, "Arab oil is not more precious than Arab blood, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, so he ordered the Minister of Petroleum to announce at the ministerial meeting in his name immediately the final cut off of oil from the countries that support Israel, which put full pressure on the international decision regarding the battle, which he considered the war of liberation, while Sheikh Zayed's vision reached the Arab world, which was looking forward To victory and the liberation of Arab lands, to assure the Arabs that among the Arab rulers there are those who went out to sacrifice in order to resolve the battle in favor of supporting the Arab nation.

Sheikh Zayed was asked at this time by a foreign journalist, "Don't you fear for your throne from the big powers?" He said: Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, "The thing that a person fears most is his soul, and I am not afraid for my life, and I will sacrifice everything for the sake of the Arab cause, and he continued, "I am a man of faith, and the believer is not afraid of anything but God." Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Sheikh Zayed was also one of the first Arab leaders who directed the need to stand by Egypt in its fateful battle against Israel, stressing that «the battle is the battle of the entire Arab existence and the battle of many generations to come, we have to We bequeath it pride and dignity."

- The UAE's position on the aggression against Egypt

Sheikh Zayed provided support to Egypt in the October War, and according to what was confirmed by the former head of the Egyptian Armed Forces Operations Authority, Major General Abdel Moneim Said, Sheikh Zayed provided economic support to Egypt after the setback of June 1967, which was called the Six-Day War, during which Israel launched attacks on a number of Arab countries (Egypt, Syria and Jordan) and occupied all Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and the Golan, until Egyptian efforts were resumed to rebuild the army and arrange its cards again.

Sheikh Zayed supported both Egypt and Syria in the 1973 war in peacekeeping and charitable work for the liberation of the occupied Arab territories in Palestine, cut off oil supplies as an effective weapon, and delivered his famous statement in which he said: "Arab oil is not more precious than Arab blood."

Dr. Mohamed Hussein, a professor of international relations at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science at Cairo University, said that in addition to the UAE's financial potential in serving the fronts of the Arab-Israeli conflict, Zayed provided Egypt with a large number of mobile surgical rooms, which he ordered to buy all supplies throughout Europe and send them with medical materials, a number of ambulances and supplies urgently with the start of the war, all without any compensation.

The head of the Center for Political and Strategic Studies, Major General Ala'a Bazid, reviewed the role played by the UAE in supporting the 1973 war internationally and mobilizing support for it through the conference held by Sheikh Zayed in London and had an international resonance on the peoples of the world who rejected the occupation, pointing out that the UAE at that time imposed on its employees to donate a full month's salary to support Egypt.

- Refusal to use the issue of the three occupied UAE islands as a pretext for Iraq

Sheikh Zayed refused to consider the issue of the three Emirati islands occupied by Iran as a pretext for Iraq to continue the war with Iran. The United Arab Emirates has had a position expressed through the Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan project aimed at stopping the Iran-Iraq war, which is summarized in that the Arab leaders at the next summit in Amman will authorize three presidents who are characterized by a neutral position to seek between Iran and Iraq, and they assured Iran that this delegation guarantees the rights of both parties and that they do not represent themselves, but all Arab leaders. Arbitration by accepted arbitrators and whoever proves the right to his neighbor will be the Arab leaders as his guarantors and guarantors. Iran's agreement was conditional on the GCC states ending what it called their support for Iraq.

- The UAE's position on the Iraq war against Kuwait

During the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1991, Sheikh Zayed was one of the first Arab leaders to call for reconciliation, and he also welcomed Kuwaiti families to seek refuge in his country, and many Kuwaitis left their country in the aftermath of the Iraqi invasion and were received by the Emirati people and Sheikh Zayed ordered to provide them with housing and give them financial assistance in addition to exempting them from paying any fees for medical treatment. During the war, 66,000 Kuwaitis sought refuge in the UAE.

Hence the position of the United Arab Emirates on this war, the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, was one of the first presidents who condemned the aggression, and Sheikh Zayed was surprised by Iraq's taking this step, especially since Kuwait stood by Iraq and provided him with all the support and assistance in his war with Iran, so it was rewarded with aggression on its territory and sovereignty, and he expressed his confidence that Kuwait will return as it was a people and government and under the leadership of His Highness the Amir Sheikh Jabber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, stressed the saying: "We are from Kuwait and Kuwait is from us," and Sheikh Zayed had begun his extensive activity for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from Kuwait and the return of legitimacy at all levels.

- The UAE's position on the Lebanese war

In October 1980, Sheikh Zayed called for an Arab summit to save Lebanon from the civil war, which was taking place between its various sects.

- The position of the UAE on the war in Somalia

His interest in peacekeeping was also evident in the UAE's participation in the UN-led operation Restoring Hope in Somalia in 1992. The Emirati writer and researcher, Ahmed Ibrahim, said, "The UAE throughout history has had pauses with Somalia during crises and during recovery, and that the military and security agreement signed between the two parties is only a kind of continuity of cooperation between the two sides to avoid the dangers that threaten Somalia recently, such as internal terrorist movements, as well as the instability of the security situation in Somalia that threatens maritime navigation in the Horn of Africa."

- The UAE's position on the war between the South and Yemen in 1973

The relationship between the South and the United Arab Emirates is not born of the moment, as it is a relationship of common destiny and one cultural rapprochement, which strengthens the UAE's positions on the side of the South and vice versa. Rather, the relationship of the South with the Emirates is linked to the history of two peoples who overlapped with each other, to the extent that southerners in the Emirates now belong to the Emirati homeland, and hold important positions in the UAE armed forces or companies, institutions and government facilities. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan chose Aden as a stop for one of his most important visits outside the UAE, because of Aden's place in the heart of the Sheikh of the Arabs, who then refused to agree to the decision of war launched by Yemen against the southern state in order to occupy it.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan viewed the city of Aden with great interest, and his visit to Aden was aimed at breaking the siege imposed on the south as a result of the events of the war between Yemen and the south and the decision of the Arab League to stop economic dealings with the south.

The founding Sheikh of the UAE, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, landed in Aden, the capital of South Yemen, in the mid-seventies of the last century, specifically in 1975. He met with the southern leader Salem Rabia Ali (Salmeen) in a historic fraternal meeting.

This visit constituted a qualitative leap and a solid cornerstone in the continuation and development of relations between the two peoples and countries, and veteran southern diplomat Mohammed Saleh Motia' played an important role in the opening of the south to the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait.

During his visit, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan emerged in famous photographs, which have not been erased from the memory of southerners and look at them with great pride, and Sheikh Zayed appears with President Salmeen.

Sheikh Zayed, accompanied by Salmeen, wandered through the streets and alleys of Aden, and met with citizens without any checkpoints or security fences, which indicates the simplicity of Sheikh Zayed and the leader Salmeen, and their passion for listening to people and exchanging conversations with them.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan was the second Arab leader to visit Aden after Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre, where he asked the President (Salmeen) to pray Friday with the people and President Salmeen chose him Al-Nour Mosque in Sheikh Osman, and God's mercy on him was impressed by that spontaneous love between citizens and their president and him as a great guest and dear brother, and before leaving Aden adopted the construction of a modern residential city in Sheikh Othman. Sheikh Zayed also visited the tomb of the beloved Abu Bakr Al-Aidarous.

- The position of the Emirates on the war and occupation of the south in the summer of 1994

The wise of the Arabs and the leader of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Plus Bin Sultan bin Nahyan, may God have mercy on him, stood in the summer war of 94 AD launched by the Yemeni forces in Sana'a against the south, and the position of the UAE leadership and people was against the war and aggression against the people of the south, and that insight of the wise Arabs manifested its truth in the resulting aggression, killing and destruction of an entire people and still to this moment.

Sheikh Plus may God have mercy on him saw that this war will have a future impact on the Arab situation in general and that the whole region will be affected by that war and its future results, so he made a Gulf opinion in order to stop the tampering of this war and his position was in the meeting of the city of Abha corresponding to that the position of Sheikh Zayed from the northern Yemeni war on the south, a position with insight, as he saw that the 94 war is a war of destruction and has its effects on Yemen in general in the south and in the north, and even serious effects on the Arab region.

Hence, the position of the United Arab Emirates was prominent in rejecting the war on the south, at the meeting of the city of Abha corresponding to (4-5 June 1994), a position that was clearer than the events of the war in 1994, where it was announced at the fifty-first session of the Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council that the Yemeni unity 90, can only continue with the consent of the parties, and the two parties can't deal in this framework, except by peaceful ways and means. In recognition of the motives of the loyal sons of Yemen and the South in the unity project, the Council affirms that such unity can never be imposed by military means.

The position of the Gulf states coincided with the position of Sheikh Zayed on the war against the south, where the Gulf Cooperation Council had sensed the danger of events, and stressed in its relevant resolution by saying as the Council shows that the continuation of fighting must have repercussions not only on the parties to the conflict but on the GCC countries, which will lead them to take appropriate positions towards the party that does not abide by the ceasefire.

During the 19944 war, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan stood with all the Emirates, a clear and strong public position alongside the south and by all means available at the time, but all the Gulf countries did so, but the Emirates had a strong position and rejected the Yemeni invasion and occupation of the south.

The UAE has implicitly recognized the south as an independent state, but this tacit recognition has not taken place through conventional diplomatic channels, but the UAE has focused its attention on the fact that Ali Abdullah Saleh and Ali Salem al-Beidh are key players in the Yemeni game and should be treated equally.

Since the UAE is one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries that have official agreements on coordinating its Arab and foreign policies, its position may also reflect the feelings of the rest of the GCC countries towards the issue.

The UAE's recognition came in the context of a phone call between Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, and Ali Salem Al-Beidh, whom the official Emirates News Agency described as "His Excellency the President", in a clear indication that he is the president of the new Democratic Republic of Yemen. "The statement was repeated three times," broadcast by the official news agency, about the contact between Sheikh Zayed and al-Beidh.

President Ali Salem al-Beidh, who declared the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Yemen, had briefed Sheikh Zayed on this step before it was announced on May 21, 1994, but it did not issue an official statement recognizing the Democratic Republic of Yemen, with Aden as its capital.

That position of Sheikh Zayed imprinted in the hearts of all southerners, and raised the size and status of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan and all the Emirates. Saleh said in a phone call that he regretted not responding to repeated calls to stop fighting against the south.

Observers at the time noted the positions of Sheikh Zayed and the UAE towards the south, through the remarkable interest in the visit of Saleh bin Husseinoun, the representative of the White President, compared to the UAE's warm reception of the North Yemeni Foreign Minister and Saleh's envoy, "Mohammed Salem Bassandwa.

President Ali Abdullah Saleh sent Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein al-Ahmar, speaker of the Yemeni House of Representatives, head of the Yemeni Congregation for Reform, and sheikh of the Hashid tribes, to Abu Dhabi, in an attempt to contain the UAE's move to officially recognize the Democratic Republic of Yemen, but the failure of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar's meeting with Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. against Yemen." Despite his implicit criticism of the UAE, Sheikh Abdullah said at his press conference, "I don't think any Arab or friendly country will recognize the secession decision."

Sheikh al-Ahmar stressed that military decisiveness "is the last option to preserve the unity of Yemen". "Yemen does not refuse mediation in order to stop the war, provided that it is carried out within the framework of legitimacy," he said. Al-Ahmar rejected the Security Council's intervention in the Yemeni conflict, saying, "The Security Council has not entered into an internal issue." Sana'a sources had high hopes for al-Ahmar's visit to Abu Dhabi in neutralizing the UAE's role, if its position on the side of Sanaa could not be won to obstruct international recognition of democratic Yemen.

In the memoirs of Sheikh Abdullah bin Hussein Al-Ahmar, one of the leaders of the war on the south, Al-Ahmar spoke of the truth of what happened when he went to the UAE for the purpose of requesting approval for the invasion of the south by Yemen. Al-Ahmar says in his memoirs: "My visit to the UAE was in the last days of the war after the media in the UAE began to call the whites His Excellency the President without official recognition, and that was one of the things that we protested and put forward to them in the visit in which we met Sheikh Zayed.

First: that these – meaning the southerners – rebelled and fabricated a crisis that caused and caused the people great damage and troubles, and everything was disrupted and we made them many concessions and responded to their demands, and finally they dictated to us a document in which everything they want and we accepted it and stipulated that it should not be signed except in Oman, and we went to Oman, and from Oman they go to Riyadh, the Sultanate of Oman, the UAE and Kuwait, and you receive them as if they were a state and they are rebels?

Second: Your position – that is, the Emiratis – that has become clear what we were expecting or expecting from you, they are your enemies before they are our enemies, and they are a communist party, and then the unity has been completed and you have recognized and blessed it, so you rebelled against legitimacy and declared separation and you are their supporters.

Abdullah Al-Ahmar adds in his memoirs by saying: "Sheikh Zayed's position was clear in support of the socialist, so our proposal to him was frank, clear and strong, and his answer to us was more clear, frank and terribly fanatical than we imagined, he said:

First: a communist tale that they are no longer communists.

Second: unity is not imposed by force and war.

And third: their resort to us and our openness to them because they are weaker than you and you have been forced and assaulted them.

Al-Ahmar says: "The discussion intensified until it reached the point of raising the voices and I had with me Mr. Abdul Wahab Al-Ansi, Deputy Prime Minister at the time, and some sheikhs from the Emirates silenced us and moved to another place, and I and Sheikh Zayed remained each one in his chair does not talk to the other and does not look at him.

He continued his speech in his memoirs by saying: "They returned to us with the opinion that the session should be adjourned and Deputy Prime Minister Abdel Wahab Al-Ansi meets with Sheikh so-and-so and Sheikh so-and-so, and we went out without reaching anything, and Sheikh Zayed is determined that we must stop the war.

I said: War is sacred for unity, and unity deserves blood.

He said: You want to shed blood and unity is not by force.

I said: Yes, unity is worth sacrificing and we are ready to make more sacrifices for it, and unity is not by force, it is the unity of one people, but separation is the one that wants to be imposed by force, and the visit ended in this way without reaching any result.

- The historical role of the UAE in the 2015 war 

During the declaration of the Houthi militias and Ali Abdullah Saleh's party to war on the south in 2015, which is the second Yemeni war against the south, the UAE's position was decisive alongside Saudi Arabia, as it led the two countries (the Arab coalition) to prevent the Houthis and Saleh from controlling the south, to protect the south and the risks associated with its geography that pose threats to the Gulf countries, as well as a rejection by the UAE and Saudi Arabia of the war against the south, although the matter took a media image about (defending legitimacy).

The southerners had been optimistic about the entry of the UAE directly on the line, and the landing of its forces on the ground, after two months of war and invasion achieved by the Houthi and Saleh militias in the south.

The southerners received the UAE forces coming across the sea, with all welcome, and felt that they were receiving their brothers and linked to one land, identity and destiny, and for this reason the harmony and harmony between the Emirati officers and the leaders of the resistance was very large, which precipitated victories on the ground.

What was very important, and embodied a reality on the ground, was the fight of the Emiratis on the ground side by side with the southerners, from Aden to Al-Anad. The UAE has moved from participating in the Arab coalition forces to the stage of work and sacrifices on the ground.

The UAE army contributed to the liberation of the southern governorates, starting from Aden, to Lahj and Karsh, to Hadramawt, and even protected the southern governorates from terrorism. The UAE army played an important role in the battles to liberate Aden, where special units participated since the beginning of the occupation of Aden by the Houthi militias, and their first participation was in mid-May 2015 when a specialized unit arrived at the wall of Aden airport to participate with the southern resistance in targeting the elements of the Houthi and Saleh militias.

This force contributed to monitoring the coordinates of the militias' locations and sending them to the operations room with the aim of bombing them by coalition aircraft, as well as in the use of qualitative and advanced weapons that contributed to targeting the elements of the Houthi and Saleh militias and attrition in Aden for more than two months, and the Emirati forces played an important and prominent role in training the southern resistance in the city of Al-Buriqa, and provided it with light, medium and heavy weapons, until it was time to liberate Aden to participate in the liberation of Emirati forces with all their weapons and equipment and make a new victory for Aden and contribute In restoring life to Aden Governorate and the neighboring areas of Aden.

The UAE forces, along with the southern forces, contributed to the protection of important figures such as President Hadi, his deputy and members of the Yemeni government upon their return to Aden, where they were protected while moving in the areas of Aden.

- UAE counter-terrorism strategy in the south

The UAE spared no effort in supporting the newly formed southern forces in order to combat terrorism and save the capital Aden from terrorism, which moved freely after liberation. With the support of the UAE, whether with support with equipment, training or logistical support, the southern forces and the various security services were able, within a record period of time, to achieve security successes against terrorism that dazzled the world, and were witnessed by the centers of global decision, most notably the UN Security Council. The role of the UAE was great and no one can deny it, a role that confirms that Aden and the south are partners of the Arab coalition, especially the UAE, whose association with the south and its people has become strong.