Page 372 - UAE Truncal States
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Tlu: Formation of the Federation
         proachcs; Qatar argued all along that the preparation of the
         permanent constitution was only one item of many in the Dubai
         Agreement which should be activated and its authorities estab­
         lished; a President and a capital city should be decided upon. Qatar
         bombarded this meeting and subsequent Supreme Council meetings
         with suggestions, legal opinions, memoranda and draft agreements,
         all aimed at actually making the federation start functioning.
           Abu Dhabi advocated proceeding slowly, allowing time to adjust
         to the new situation and to anticipate the consequences of each move.
         Abu Dhabi adopted a very cautious attitude towards the establish­
         ment of institutions at that time, realising how very difficult it could be
         to change certain functions once they had become institutionalised.
         The Abu Dhabi delegation wanted to concentrate on creating the
         right federation with, in due course, the right constitution on the basis
         of the experts’ drafts and informal consultations among member
         States. It was less concerned about how the union would function in
         the interim period. Bahrain went along with Abu Dhabi in wanting to
         leave all decisions of importance to the constitution-making period,
         but it had already indicated that it had very definite views on certain
         issues.

         Three meetings of the Supreme Council of Rulers
         If we consider the meeting of the nine Rulers in February 1968 as the
         first session of the Supreme Council, the second session was
         convened in Abu Dhabi on 25 and 26 May 1968. It held four closed
         meetings, from one of which even the closest advisers of the Rulers
         were excluded. The final communique was merely a statement of the
         intention to strengthen the Union. However, the meeting had been
         unlikely to make many decisions, for some of the issues were being
         pul in front of the Rulers, with any clarity, for the first time. The
         majority (excluding Qatar, Dubai, and Ra’s al Khaimah) preferred not
         to proceed with establishing the institutions proposed in the Dubai
         agreement, but reiterated the desire to obtain a legal expert from
         outside the area to draft the constitution. In the event, no decision
         was taken on that either.31
           The third meeting of the Supreme Council of Rulers, scheduled for
         1 July in Abu Dhabi, eventually took place a week later, giving time
         for more last-minute consultations. The Government of Qatar had
         decided to refer this matter of the tardiness of the members in
         building the Union’s institutions to two legal experts of their choice.

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