The Establishment of the United Arab Emirates 1950-85

300 Pages·1987·8.911 MB·English

by  Abdullah Omran Taryam

THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES 1950-85

The
Establishment
o f the
United Arab
Emirates
1950-85
ABDULLAH OMRAN TARYAM
CROOM HELM
London • New York • Sydney
© 1987 Abdullah Omran Taryam
Croom Helm Ltd, Provident House, Burrell Row,
Beckenham, Kent BR3 1AT
Croom Helm Australia, 44-50 Waterloo Road,
North Ryde, 2113, New South Wales
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Taryam, Abdullah Omran
The establishment of the United Arab
Emirates 1950-85.
1. United Arab Emirates — Politics and
government
I. Tide
320.953'57 JQ1825.U5A4/
ISBN 0-7099-4330-X
Published in the USA by
Croom Helm
in association with Methuen, Inc.
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
ISBN 0-7099-4330-X
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Mackays of Chatham Ltd, Kent
Contents
Maps: The Arab Gulf
The Strait of Hormuz
Introduction 1
1. Internal and External Influences and their
Impact on the Arab Emirates 1950-60 9
The British Conquest 9
Early winds of change 13
The Trucial States Council 1952 16
Modern education, 1953 17
Commercial development of Dubai 20
Anti-British movements in the 1950s 22
The Buraimi dispute 22
The Inner Oman Revolution 25
The Bahraini Nationalist Movement 28
Iranian expansionist ambitions 30
Fragmentation as a policy 33
2. Oil and the Change in British Policy 41
Beginning of progress 41
Political awakening 43
Impact of the oil wealth 46
Arab League involvement 48
The Development Office 51
3. The British Withdrawal Decision and Local,
Regional and International Reactions 64
Reason for the withdrawal decision 65
Attitudes and reactions 68
(i) United States 68
(ii) Saudi Arabia 71
(iii) Iran 73
(iv) The rulers of the emirates 76
(v) The Arab world 80
(vi) The British Conservative Party 80
(vii) The Soviet Union 83
4. The Dubai Agreement and Talks over the
Proposed Nine-member Union 89
The Abu Dhabi-Dubai agreement 89
The nine-member union scheme 91
CONTENTS
Constitutional differences 94
Saudi and Iranian attitudes 114
Proposed constitution 122
5. Failure of Talks about the Nine-member Union
and Success of the Seven-member Union 142
Settlement of the Bahrain question 142
Resumption of talks 146
Impact of the British Conservative Party’s return
to power 149
The British withdrawal 164
Emergence of the seven-member union 170
Iran’s seizure of the islands 177
Proclamation of the state of the United
Arab Emirates 189
6. The Federation of the Emirates and the Conflict
Between the Constitutional Structure and
Regional Authorities 197
Features of the provisional Constitution 197
Establishment of the federal power structures 200
Bids to consolidate federal versus regional
authority 209
Problems of regionalism and inter-emirate frontier
disputes 219
Committee for a draft permanent constitution 234
Rejection of the permanent constitution and
extension of the provisional constitution 238
Demand by the Cabinet and National Assembly for
more federal powers 239
UAE joins the Arab Gulf Co-operation Council 248
Second extension of the provisional constitution
1976-81 249
7. Evaluation of the Economic and Social
Development in the United Arab Emirates 254
The UAE development experiment and
its characteristics 254
Development planning bodies in the UAE 254
Demographic situation and national and foreign
manpower 258
Achievements under the Union 261
Education 261
Health 265
CONTENTS
Social welfare 266
Agriculture, animal welfare and fisheries 269
Electricity and water 271
Roads, communications and transport 272
Crude oil and extractive industry 273
Miscellaneous 27S
Foreign trade 275
Banking and insurance 277
Housing 278
Index 282
75 kn