Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan

Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (خليفة بن زايد بن سلطان آل نهيان‎; 7 September 1948 – 13 May 2022) was the second president of the United Arab Emirates and the ruler of Abu Dhabi, serving from November 2004 until his death in May 2022.

Khalifa was the eldest son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first president of the United Arab Emirates.

Khalifa was born on 7 September 1948 at Qasr Al-Muwaiji, Al Ain, in Abu Dhabi (then part of the Trucial States), the eldest son of Hassa bint Mohammed Al Nahyan and Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

He was a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.

When his father, Zayed, became emir of Abu Dhabi in 1966, Khalifa was appointed the ruler's representative in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi and head of the Courts Department in Al Ain.

Zayed was the ruler's representative in the Eastern Region before he became the emir of Abu Dhabi.

A few months later the position was handed to Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan.

On 1 February 1969, Khalifa was nominated the crown prince of Abu Dhabi, and on the next day he was appointed head of the Abu Dhabi Department of Defence.

In that post, he oversaw the build up of the Abu Dhabi Defense Force, which after 1971 became the core of the UAE Armed Forces.

Following the establishment of the UAE in 1971, Khalifa assumed several positions in Abu Dhabi as head of the Abu Dhabi Cabinet.

After the reconstruction of the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Cabinet was replaced by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, and Khalifa became the 2nd deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates (23 December 1973) and the chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi (20 January 1974).

In May 1976, he became deputy commander of the UAE Armed Forces, under the president.

He also became the head of the Supreme Petroleum Council in the late 1980s.

The post granted him wide powers in energy matters.

He was also the chairman of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency.

As crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Khalifa carried out some aspects of the presidency in a de facto capacity from the late 1990s when his father experienced health problems.

The cable said that Khalifa had risked his reputation and the UAE's future since 1990, when he described the United States as willing to shed blood to maintain international order and stability in the Gulf.

He succeeded his father as the ruler of Abu Dhabi on 2 November 2004, and the Federal Supreme Council elected him as president of the UAE the following day.

As ruler of Abu Dhabi, he attracted cultural and academic centres to Abu Dhabi, helping establish the Louvre Abu Dhabi, New York University Abu Dhabi and Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi.

He also established Etihad Airways.

During Khalifa's presidency, the United Arab Emirates became a regional economic powerhouse and its non-oil economy grew.

Khalifa was viewed as a pro-Western modernizer whose low-key approach helped steer the country through a tense era in regional politics and forged closer ties with the United States and Israel.

He succeeded to the post of emir of Abu Dhabi and was elected president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 3 November 2004, replacing his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had died the day before.

He had been acting president since his father became ill prior to his death.

On 1 December 2005, Khalifa announced that half of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC), an assembly that advises the president, would be indirectly elected.

Half of the council's members were still appointed by the leaders of the emirates.

As president during the financial crisis of 2007–2008, he directed the payment of billions of dollars in emergency bailout funds into Dubai.

In 2009, Khalifa was re-elected as president for a second five-year term.

On 4 January 2010, the world's tallest man-made structure, originally known as Burj Dubai, was renamed the Burj Khalifa in his honor.

In 2010, Khalifa was described in a WikiLeaks cable signed by then U.S. ambassador Richard G. Olson as a "distant and uncharismatic personage."

In March 2011, Khalifa sent the United Arab Emirates Air Force to support the military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi, alongside forces from NATO, Qatar, Sweden and Jordan.

Khalifa pledged the full support of the UAE to the Bahrain in the face of pro-democracy uprising in 2011.

Later that year Khalifa was ranked as the world's fourth-wealthiest monarch, with a fortune estimated to be worth $15 billion.

In 2013, he commissioned Azzam, the longest motor yacht ever built at 590 ft long, with cost between $400–600 million.

In January 2014, Khalifa had a stroke and was in stable condition after surgery.

He then assumed a lower profile in state affairs but retained ceremonial presidential powers.

His half-brother Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan carried out public affairs of the state and day-to-day decision-making of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

In January 2014, Khalifa had a stroke and was reported to have been in a stable condition after undergoing an operation.He was rarely seen in public after and with his health deteriorating, his brother, the crown prince took over as the de facto ruler.

In 2018, Forbes named Khalifa in its list of the world's most powerful people.

Following his death on May 13, 2022, Khalifa was succeeded by his brother Mohamed.