Page 384 - UAE Truncal States

The Formation of the Federation

few months of (he new era were all observed with great interest and
Oman was assured of Abu Dhabi's readiness to help.03 Oman’s new
Prime Minister, Tariq bin Taimur, declared on 20 October 1970 that
Oman would not join the federation at present although it might be
prepared to form an association with some of the Emirates at a later
date.

The last resort

Saudi-Kuwaiti mediation efforts
By the end of 1970 prospects for a workable federation of the nine
were less encouraging than ever, although many of the operational
details had already been agreed. Persistent though polite acrimonies
continued to be exchanged between Qatar and Bahrain, the former
being given as much as ever to lengthy explanations of its views in
memoranda and letters.01
In January 1971 a delegation, headed by Prince Nawaf of Saudi
Arabia and the Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Shaikh Sabah Ahmad al
Jabir Al Sabah, went to Bahrain and then to the other Emirates with
proposals to resolve the stalemate over seven points. Four of them
had already been agreed in October 1969 but had subsequently been
raised again by Bahrain; they were the representation in the Union
Council, the site of the permanent capital, the method of voting in the
Supreme Council of Rulers, and the members’ contributions to the
Union budget. Three new subjects, about which disagreement had
arisen since then, were the role of the Emirates’ local armed forces,
legislation concerning air traffic, and the membership of individual
Emirates in international organisations such as OPEC.
During the course of January the nine Emirates communicated
their views on the Saudi-Kuwaiti proposals. Qatar did not wish to re­
open discussion on matters already agreed. It also concurred with
the Saudi-Kuwaiti proposals for the three other subjects at the same
time, insisting that the sentence "the regulation and the exploitation
of natural resources” should be deleted from the list of matters over
which the Union should have exclusive powers of legislation.85
- After the comments and criticism of the other emirates were
received the joint Saudi-Kuwait delegation prepared new pro­
posals:86 1. To return to the original text of the draft constitution
allocating four seats to each Stale in the Union Council. 2. To decide
on the permanent capital when the permanent constitution had been

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