Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Biography
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is an Emirati politician who is the current President of the United Arab Emirates, the Emir of Abu Dhabi and the Supreme Commander of the Union Defence Force. He is porpulary known as Sheikh Khalifa.
Sheikh Khalifa succeeded his father, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, as Emir of Abu Dhabi on 2 November 2004 and became the President of the Federation the next day. As Crown Prince, he had already de facto carried out some aspects of the presidency since the late 1990s while his father was facing health problems.[citation needed] Sheikh Khalifa is also chairman of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, which manages $875 billion in assets, the largest amount managed by a nation’s head of state in the world. Collectively, the Al Nahyan family is believed to hold a fortune of $150 billion.
On 4 January 2010, the world’s tallest man-made structure, originally known as Burj Dubai, was renamed the Burj Khalifa in his honor. In January 2014, Khalifa suffered a stroke but was in a stable condition. He has since assumed a lower profile in state affairs, but retained presidential decisions. His half brother Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has been entrusted with public affairs of the state and day-to-day decision making of the emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Age
He was born on 25 January 1948, in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates. He is 71 years old as of 2019.
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Height
He stands at 6 feet 0 inches (1.83 m).
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Weight
He is worth 70 kg.
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Family
Khalifa was born to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and Sheikha Hassa bint Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi. He is the eldest son of Sheikh Zayed and is a graduate of the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He was born at Qasr Al-Muwaiji, Al Ain.
When his father, Sheikh Zayed, became Emir of Abu Dhabi he was appointed as Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi and as Head of the Courts Department in Al Ain in 1966. Zayed was the Ruler’s Representative in the Eastern Region before he became the Emir of Abu Dhabi. A few months later the position was handed to Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan.
Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Spouse|Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Children
In 1964, he got married to Shamsa bint Suhail Al Mazrouei.Sheikha Shamsa bint Suhail Al Mazrouei is the first wife of the current President of the United Arab Emirates, Emir of Abu Dhabi.
He has eight children: Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, Mohammed bin Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Shamma bint Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Sheikha bint Zayed Al Nahyan, Mouza bint Zayed Al Nahyan, Lateefa bint Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Salama bint Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Osha bint Zayed Al Nahyan
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Career
On 1 February 1969, Sheikh Khalifa was nominated as the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and on the next day he was appointed as the Head of the Abu Dhabi Department of Defense. In that post, he oversaw the building up of the Abu Dhabi Defense Force, which after 1971 became the core of the UAE Armed Forces. Following the establishment of the UAE in 1971, Sheikh Khalifa assumed several positions in Abu Dhabi: Prime Minister, head of the Abu Dhabi Cabinet, Minister of Defense, and Minister of Finance. After the reconstruction of the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates, the abolishment of the Abu Dhabi Cabinet, and the establishment of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, he became the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and the Chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi, under his father. In May 1976, he became deputy commander of the UAE armed forces, under the President. He also became the head of the Supreme Petroleum Council in the late 1980s, and continues in this position today, which grants him wide powers in energy matters. He was also the chairman of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency.
On 3 November 2004, Khalifa succeeded to the posts of Emir of Abu Dhabi and President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), replacing his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had died the day before. He had been acting president since his father became ill prior to his passing. On 1 December 2005, the President announced that half of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC), an assembly that advises the president, would be indirectly elected. However, half of the council’s members would still need to be appointed by the leaders of the emirates. The elections were set to take place in December 2006. In 2010, he was described in a WikiLeaks cable signed by then U.S. ambassador Richard G. Olson as a “distant and uncharismatic personage.”In March 2011, Khalifa sent the United Arab Emirates Air Force to support the military intervention in Libya against Muammar Gaddafi, alongside forces from NATO, Qatar, Sweden and Jordan. Khalifa pledged the full support of the UAE to the Bahraini regime in the face of pro-democracy uprising in 2011. Later that year Khalifa was ranked as the world’s fourth-wealthiest monarch, with a fortune estimated to be worth $15 billion.In 2013, he commissioned Azzam, the longest motor yacht ever built at 590 ft (180 m) long, with costs between $400–600 million. In Fall 2011, the Emirates initiated a program to promote “allegiance” to Khalifa and other Emirati leaders. The program continues, and encourages not only Emirati nationals, but residents from any nationality to register their “appreciation, recognition, and loyalty” to the Emirs. In January 2014, Khalifa suffered a stroke and was reported to have been in a stable condition after undergoing an operation.
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Net Worth
He has an estimated net worth of $15.0 billion.
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Controversies
Seychellois government records show that since 1995 Khalifa has spent $2 million buying up more than 66 acres of land on the Seychelles’ main island of Mahé, where his palace is being built. The Seychelles’ government has received large aid packages from the UAE, most notably a $130 million injection that was used in social service and military aid, which funded patrol boats for the Seychelles’ antipiracy efforts. In 2008, the UAE came to the indebted Seychelles government’s aid, with a $30 million injection.
Khalifa paid $500,000 for the 29.8-acre site of his palace in 2005, according to the sales document. A Seychelles planning authority initially rejected the palace’s building plans, a decision overturned by President James Michel’s cabinet. A month after the start of construction of the palace, the national utility company warned that the site’s plans posed threats to the water supply. Joel Morgan, the Seychelles’ minister of the environment, said the government did not tender the land because it wanted it to go to Khalifa. Morgan said “the letter of the law” might not have been followed in the land sale. In February 2010, the sewage system set up by Ascon, the company building the palace, for the site’s construction workers overflowed, sending rivers of waste through the region, which are home to more than 8000 residents.
Local government agencies and officials from Khalifa’s office responded quickly to the problem, sending in technical experts and engineers. Government officials concluded that Ascon ignored health and building codes for their workers, and fined the company $81,000. Ascon blamed the incident on “unpredicted weather conditions”. Khalifa’s presidential office offered to pay $15 million to replace the water-piping system for the mountainside., and Seychelles’ government representatives and residents say Ascon has offered to pay roughly $8,000 to each of the 360 households that were affected by the pollution.
In April 2016, Khalifa was named in the Panama Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists; he reportedly owns luxury properties in London worth more than $1.7 billion via shell companies that Mossack Fonseca set up and administers for him in the British Virgin Islands.
Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan News
Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan appointed two female judge
Abu Dhabi: President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has issued Federal Decree No. 27 of 2019 appointing two female judges at the Federal Judiciary.
The new judges Khadeeja Khamis Khalifa Al Malas and Salamah Rashid Salem Al Ketbi are the first two Emirati women to hold judicial positions at the Federal level in the UAE.
This latest appointment reflects the UAE government’s stance to ensure that women are empowered in their line of work, playing an integral role in the development and progress of the nation.
It highlights the achievements obtained by Emirati women, as well as the directives of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to ensure females have an increased presence and role in the country’s federal courts system.
The appointment of Al Malas and Al Ketbi also represents the initiatives and policies undertaken by the UAE Cabinet to further empower Emirati women in their community, including President Khalifa’s decision to increase Emirati women’s representation in the Federal National Council, FNC, to 50 per cent in the upcoming parliamentary term.
Aopted From gulfnews.com