UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan

The National Identity Forum that opened its discussion in Abu Dhabi yesterday had a rare argument on the population composition flaw after the Dubai police commissioner said that in seventy years Dubai will be in the best economic situation if the descendants of the current crown princes will be able to maintain the rule of their Emirates. He added (using Arabic rhyme words) “I fear that we will construct buildings and lose Emirates.. He presented pictorial scenes of sabotage carried out recently by groups of foreign workforce in the UAE.

In his reply, the UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, demanded to deal with the issue of population composition with optimism, and said that pessimism should not be the dominant approach in addressing this topic.

al-Sharq al-Awsat, London, April 16, 2008