Over more than three decades of wielding increasing political influence, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (MBZ) has emerged as a key architect of the modern UAE.
As president since 2022, and de facto ruler for several years before that, MBZ has been closely associated with the UAE’s projection of soft power and military muscle in the surrounding region, and its position as a major economic force.
In recent years, MBZ has overseen Abu Dhabi’s rise as a commercial hub to challenge Dubai, augmenting its huge oil income; indeed, the non-oil sector now accounts for a greater share of the emirate’s GDP than the hydrocarbons industry. He has also overseen a concentration of political power and economic influence.
A key member of the Bani Fatima bloc, Sheikh Mansour holds a range of senior political posts while also pursuing media and sporting interests at home and abroad that are widely seen to add to the UAE’s soft power projection. He is closely associated with efforts to foster good relations between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, not least via his marriage to a daughter of Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum.
Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan was born in 1972 to late president Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al-Nahyan and his influential wife Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Al-Ketbi.
He has gained in influence alongside his older Bani Fatima brothers, with involvement in a number of sensitive dossiers and long experience, having become a full minister aged only 24.
In early 2006, in what GSN described as one of the most important government reshuffles in 35 years, Abdullah was promoted to foreign minister. In this role he has been very active, travelling often, meeting foreign officials and helping to raise the UAE’s profile around the world.
Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed is one of the most influential figures in UAE politics and business, with an extensive portfolio of state-owned and privately-held commercial interests and a pivotal role as national security advisor. Those two roles sometimes overlap, as does his strong interest in the development of artificial intelligence.
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