Dubai Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ===Reaching the UAE's Act of Union=== [[File:Adi with the three rulers of Dubai.jpg|thumb|left|[[Adi Bitar]] in a meeting with Sheiks [[Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum|Rashid Al Maktoum]], [[Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum|Mohammad Al Maktoum]] and [[Maktoum bin Rashid Al Maktoum|Maktoum Al Maktoum]] in Dubai, 1968]] Dubai and the other "[[Trucial States]]" had long been a [[British protectorate]] where the British government took care of foreign policy and defence, as well as arbitrating between the rulers of the Eastern Gulf, the result of a treaty signed in 1892 named the "Exclusive Agreement". This was to change with PM [[Harold Wilson]]'s announcement, on 16 January 1968, that all British troops were to be withdrawn from "East of Aden". The decision was to pitch the coastal emirates, together with [[Qatar]] and [[Bahrain]], into fevered negotiations to fill the political vacuum that the British withdrawal would leave behind.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Spirit of the Union|last = Al Maktoum|first = Mohammed bin Rashid|publisher = Motivate|year = 2012|isbn = 978-1-86063-330-0|location = UAE|pages = 27β39}}</ref> The principle of union was first agreed upon between the ruler of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh [[Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan]], and Sheikh Rashid of Dubai on 18 February 1968 meeting in an encampment at Argoub Al Sedirah, near Al Semeih, a desert stop between the two emirates.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Spirit of the Union|last = Maktoum|first = Mohammed bin Rashid|publisher = Motivate|year = 2012|isbn = 978-1-86063-330-0|location = UAE|page = 30}}</ref> The two agreed to work towards bringing the other emirates, including Qatar and Bahrain, into the union. Over the next two years, negotiations and meetings of the rulers followed -often stormy- as a form of union was thrashed out. The nine-state union was never to recover from the October 1969 meeting where British intervention against aggressive activities by two of the Emirates resulted in a walk-out by them, Bahrain and Qatar. They dropped out of talks, leaving six of the seven "trucial" emirates to agree on union on 18 July 1971.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Abed|first1=Ibrahim|url=https://archive.org/details/unitedarabemirat00vine|title=United Arab Emirates : a new perspective|last2=Hellyer|first2=Peter|publisher=Trident Press|year=2001|isbn=978-1-900724-47-0|location=London|pages=129β133|url-access=limited}}</ref> On 2 December 1971, Dubai, together with Abu Dhabi, [[Sharjah]], [[Ajman]], [[Umm al-Quwain]] and [[Fujairah]] joined in the Act of Union to form the [[United Arab Emirates]]. The seventh emirate, Ras Al Khaimah, joined the UAE on 10 February 1972, following [[Iran]]'s annexation of the RAK-claimed [[Tunbs]] islands.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islands and International Politics in the Persian Gulf: The Abu Musa and Tunbs in Strategic Context|url=https://archive.org/details/islandsinternati00ahma|url-access=limited|last=Ahmadi|first=Kourosh|publisher=Routledge|year=2008|location=London|pages=[https://archive.org/details/islandsinternati00ahma/page/n106 96]}}</ref> In 1973, Dubai joined the other emirates to adopt a uniform currency: the [[United Arab Emirates dirham|UAE dirham]].<ref name="britannica" /> In that same year, the prior [[monetary union]] with Qatar was dissolved and the UAE Dirham was introduced throughout the Emirates.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.centralbank.ae/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=148&Itemid=106|title=Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates|access-date=11 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161203063733/http://www.centralbank.ae/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=148&Itemid=106|archive-date=3 December 2016|url-status=dead}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page