Page 511 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

Notes to Chapter Nine

150 When the air wing of the ADDF built up its fleet of Mirage fighters it
became almost totally dependent on staff seconded from abroad for
maintenance and operation of these and most other aircraft used by this
force.
159 The first demonstration of successful co-operation of the forces came
sooner than expected when the Union Defence Force in Sharjah,
supported by an armoured brigade of the ADDF, put down a coup in
Sharjah in January 1972. In the 1960s the previous Ruler, Saqr bin
Sultan (1951-65), was viewed with uneasiness by some members of
Sharjah’s ruling family and the British authorities because of his
sympathy with Nasser’s Egypt, and in spite of his active role in
promoting education in his state, he was deposed and lived in exile in
Cairo. In January 1972 he returned and sought to take advantage of the
discontent prevailing among some groups in Sharjah over the Ruler’s
arrangements with Iran. On 24 January he seized the palace with a party
of beduin. He soon surrendered to the new Defence Minister, Shaikh
Muhammad bin Rashid, but the troops which stormed the palace found
the Ruler, Shaikh Khalid, dead. The brother of the deceased, Shaikh
Sultan bin Muhammad, became Ruler of Sharjah, and Shaikh Saqr was
later put on trial and imprisoned. The incident demonstrated that the
days were over when violent change of rule in one shaikhdom could be
tolerated by its neighbours as a purely domestic affair. The ADDF again
assisted the UDF when fighting broke out over some water wells
between tribes of Sharjah and Fujairah on the east coast in June 1972;
since then the ADDF has maintained a training camp near Fujairah,
administered from the base in Abu Dhabi but flying the UDF flag.
160 See also Abdullah, Muhammad Morsy, The United Arab Emirates,
Table 7: Military Strength of the UAE and Individual Member States,
p. 356 (adapted from various published sources).
161 The Northern Military Command consisting of one brigade was based in
Ra’s al Khaimah and commanded by the second son of the Ruler of Ra’s
al Khaimah; the Central Military Command consisted of one brigade,
the former DDF, and was commanded by the fourth son of the Ruler of
Dubai; the Western Military Command, based in Abu Dhabi under the
command of the President’s second son, Shaikh Sultan bin Zayid,
consisted of three brigades.
162 As was the case in the sudden flare-up in the Summer of 1976 of a border
dispute between Dubai and Sharjah when the latter started to build a
large shopping-centre near the border. The fact that both sides were un­
compromising for some time nearly caused the President's resignation.
163 The UAE contributed men and equipment to the Arab Peace-Keeping
Force in Lebanon.
164 These issues will be dealt with comprehensively in a forthcoming book
by Ann Fyfe.

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