ABU DHABI - NEW WEALTH AND NEW ARMY

(1 Mar 1970) RR7009 ABU DHABI - NEW WEALTH AND NEW ARMY

Abu Dhabi is one of nine sheikhdoms - some poverty-stricken, some oil-rich - strung along the Trucial Coast in the Arabian Gulf. They have varying degress of self-rule, but foreign affairs and defence are still the responsibility of Britain, the former colonial power in the area. Next year, however, Britain, due to withdraw from the Gulf, wants the states to band together into a Trucial Federation, but although Abu Dhabi's ruler, Sheikh Zayed, has been hosen as first federal president, the project is still a long way from completion. Meanwhile Zayed, helped by the massive oil revenues which have transformed his state's fortunes over the last few years, is taking no chances; he's building his own army. We show this army in its desert training-grounds, together with many other
aspects of life in Abu Dhabi.

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