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POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS xxi

Introduction (Second Edition)

1 POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS IN THE ARABIAN GULF, 1968-1972
Following the decision of the British Government in January
1968, to withdraw its forces from the Gulf region by the end of 1971,
the nine Rulers of the Gulf Emirates (Bahrain, Qatar, Abu Dhabi,
Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Qaiwain, Ras al-Khaimah,
Fujairah) met in Dubai on 27 February 1968, and collectively signed
an agreement (commonly known as the Dubai Federation
Agreement). This agreement provided for the establishment of a
Federation of Arab Emirates".1 According to the provisions of
4 4
Article II of the Agreement, a Supreme Council, formed from the
nine Rulers of the Emirates, was established. This Supreme Council
was given authority to "draw up a complete and permanent charter
of the federation and formulate its highest policy in international,
political, defence, economic, cultural, and other matters related to
the purposes of the federation as prescribed in Article II of this
agreement".2
The Supreme Council, which spent three years (1968-1971)
discussing the political and constitutional aspects of the federation,
failed to reach a firm decision on the creation of a viable federal
state. After signing the Dubai Agreement of 27 February 1968, the
Supreme Council held several other meetings in May, July, and
October 1968, and in May and October, 1969. But meetings
scheduled for November 1969 and October 1970 were cancelled
because of differences among the Rulers on certain basic
constitutional issues.3
The Rulers proved to be unable to solve their differences and
approve the federation draft constitution, which was submitted by a
committee of legal advisers, assisted by a reputed Egyptian jurist.
Consequently, no more efforts were made by the Rulers to form the
federation provided for in the Dubai Agreement.

1. For a critical analysis of the Agreement of 27 February 1968, see below, pp. 7-8
and footnote (1) thereof.
2. For the full text of the Agreement, see Appendix XIII.
3. In addition to the above meetings, two conferences for the Deputy Ruler were
held at Abu Dhabi, in June and in October, 1970, respectively.
The information on the "Federation of Arab Emirates” is based on (a) the
official records of the Secretariat of the Provisional Federal Council and (b) the
author’s private papers. The author served as a member of, and a legal adviser
to, the delegation of the Bahrain Government to the Federation.