Abu Dhabi

Overview

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the seat of the emirate that shares its name. The city is the federation’s political center; the emirate is one of its seven constituent states and its largest by land area. The distinction matters because decisions described as Abu Dhabi’s may refer to the city’s institutions, the emirate’s ruler, or the UAE government based in the capital. The other emirates are Dubai, Ajman, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. Abu Dhabi’s oil wealth has given its rulers a leading position in federal affairs and substantial influence across the Middle East.

Abu Dhabi became the federation’s ruling center under Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had governed the emirate since 1966 and led the creation of the UAE in 1971. Its later rulers, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and Mohammed bin Zayed, also served as UAE presidents. The city consequently houses both emirate institutions and the center of federal leadership. Oil revenues supported its development, while its rulers used diplomacy, defense cooperation, and investment to extend its regional role.

That role is visible in two major relationships. Abu Dhabi hosts American forces at al-Dhafra Air Base and has worked with the United States on security amid threats from the Iranian regime and its regional networks. It also became a center of Emirati–Israeli engagement after the 2020 Abraham Accords laid the groundwork for full diplomatic relations between the UAE and Israel. Those ties brought Jewish diplomatic, communal, and religious activity into public view in the capital.

Geography

Abu Dhabi lies on the coast of the Persian Gulf. The capital’s built-up area occupies an island and adjoining mainland districts, while the emirate extends far beyond the city. References to the emirate’s land area, oil fields, military facilities, and other settlements therefore do not describe the urban center alone. The city’s position on the Gulf places it near maritime routes and the regional security concerns that have shaped UAE policy.

The emirate’s resources distinguish it from Dubai, which has comparatively little oil of its own. Zayed governed a federation controlling nearly one-tenth of the world’s oil reserves, most of them concentrated in Abu Dhabi. Revenue from those reserves helped transform the city after oil was discovered in the emirate in 1958. Abu Dhabi’s financial weight also affected relations within the federation. During the Dubai World debt crisis, Abu Dhabi provided Dubai $10 billion in February and another $5 billion shortly before the debt announcement; Dubai’s estimated total foreign debt at the time was $80 billion.

Some sites central to Abu Dhabi’s international role lie outside the city center. Al-Dhafra Air Base, used by American forces, is in the emirate. The Barakah nuclear reactor, which the Houthis claimed to have attacked in 2017, is likewise an emirate site. Abu Dhabi International Airport and fuel storage facilities near the capital became targets in later Houthi attacks. Keeping city and emirate distinct is essential when describing those events.

Jewish history

Abu Dhabi’s public Jewish presence expanded alongside the UAE’s diplomatic relationship with Israel. The Abraham Accords of 2020 opened the way to full relations and gave Emirati and Israeli officials, Jewish organizations, and local community members new opportunities to meet in the capital. The American Jewish Committee (AJC) established AJC Abu Dhabi in 2021 as its first permanent office in an Arab country. Former U.S. ambassador to Oman Marc Sievers headed the office. Its formal opening reception and ribbon-cutting took place on March 2, with Emirati officials and diplomats from 12 countries, including Israel, Bahrain, Egypt, and Jordan, in attendance.

The office became a venue for sustained contact rather than a single ceremonial event. On the first anniversary of the Abraham Accords, Abu Dhabi’s Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy and AJC launched educational cooperation on Emirati–Israeli relations. At the accords’ second anniversary, an 80-person AJC delegation joined Emirati officials, diplomats, business leaders, and members of the local Jewish community in Abu Dhabi. AJC also organized public programming with the academy, including a lecture series named for UAE ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, who helped broker the accords.

The Abrahamic Family House gave that presence a prominent physical setting. Mohammed bin Zayed introduced the concept during the February 2019 UAE visit of Pope Francis and Grand Imam Ahmad Al-Tayyeb. The completed complex opened with a mosque, church, synagogue, exhibition space, and conference facilities. Its Moses Ben Maimon Synagogue was the UAE’s first purpose-built synagogue, still under construction in 2022. In 2023, Jewish visitors completed a Torah scroll there and celebrated at the synagogue. Mohammed bin Zayed and his brother Abdullah bin Zayed also advanced an interfaith initiative involving Jewish and Muslim representatives in Abu Dhabi.

Public worship operates within a regulated religious framework. Religious organizations obtain operating licenses through Abu Dhabi’s Department of Community Development, and communities need permits for some public events, donations, and worship in temporarily rented spaces. Church officials may officiate non-Muslim weddings, but couples must obtain marriage certificates from the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department. The department also permits registered Christian leaders to mediate divorces for Christian and agnostic couples when both spouses live in the emirate. These provisions coexist with restrictions reported by minority religious groups on building houses of worship and securing suitable premises.

Modern history

Zayed became emir of Abu Dhabi in 1966, after the 1958 discovery of oil had begun to change its economic prospects. He named his son Khalifa crown prince in 1969. British military withdrawal created a regional power vacuum, and Zayed used federation to protect Abu Dhabi while joining neighboring emirates in the UAE in 1971. Abu Dhabi became the capital and Zayed the federation’s president. Building a federal state required cooperation among rulers with distinct resources and interests. A military appointment Zayed made in the late 1970s brought Dubai and Abu Dhabi military units into opposing positions, showing that the new federation still had internal tensions.

Zayed named Mohammed bin Zayed deputy crown prince of Abu Dhabi in 2003. After Zayed’s death in 2004, Khalifa succeeded him as ruler of Abu Dhabi, and the Federal Supreme Council selected Khalifa as UAE president. Khalifa held both offices until his death in 2022. Mohammed, serving as Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, had meanwhile taken on most executive authority. He was the emirate’s effective day-to-day leader during a series of meetings with senior American officials and, by 2017, the UAE’s effective leader. He also visited India in 2016 and 2017 as crown prince and acting UAE ruler.

Mohammed exercised the powers of Abu Dhabi’s ruler for about ten years before formally succeeding his half-brother in 2022. He then became both ruler of the emirate and president of the federation. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris visited Abu Dhabi with a delegation in May of that year after his accession. On March 29, 2023, Mohammed named his eldest son, Khalid bin Muhammad, crown prince of Abu Dhabi. He also named his brothers Tahnoun bin Zayed and Hazza bin Zayed deputy rulers. The appointments set out the next line of leadership for the emirate that has long supplied the UAE’s president.

Abu Dhabi’s leadership has used its resources in regional diplomacy and finance as well as domestic development. In 2022, Gulf states pledged $22 billion to support Egypt’s economy, including a $2 billion Abu Dhabi investment deal. Mohammed bin Zayed’s relationship with Israel also developed through direct contact: he spoke with Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett in July 2021, and the two met Egyptian president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi at Sharm el-Sheikh in March 2022. The UAE later canceled prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s planned Abu Dhabi visit after Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount. The cancellation marked a diplomatic disagreement within a relationship established by the accords.

Security

Abu Dhabi’s security policy combines a close American partnership with concern about the Iranian regime’s regional threat. As effective day-to-day leader, Mohammed bin Zayed met U.S. defense secretary Robert Gates on April 8 and national security adviser Tom Donilon on April 13 during discussions over Gulf security. Abu Dhabi provided U.S. forces access to al-Dhafra Air Base for surveillance flights monitoring Iranian activity in the Persian Gulf. The emirate also became the first customer outside the U.S. military to order the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missile defense system. These arrangements made the capital an important partner for American defense planning.

Cooperation did not eliminate policy differences. The UAE joined Saudi Arabia in sending security forces to Bahrain during demonstrations against its government. American officials questioned that decision, while Abu Dhabi sought greater recognition of the threat it saw from the Iranian regime. In 2012, Mohammed bin Zayed pressed Emirati statesmen to consider how Abu Dhabi should respond to an attack by a hostile regional power and agents operating inside the country. His concern linked external defense to domestic security.

Abu Dhabi has opposed the Muslim Brotherhood, which the UAE designated a terrorist organization in 2014. Its State Security Court tried 94 Emiratis associated with the Brotherhood between March and July 2013. The court convicted 69 of establishing and managing a secret Brotherhood organization. The convictions did not establish seditious activity on the public record: the only evidence of that activity identified in public records was a confession obtained under torture and later retracted. The case raised serious concerns about evidence and due process. Abu Dhabi’s court also tried 30 Emirati and Egyptian nationals linked to the Brotherhood. Opposition to an organization does not remove the need for credible public evidence and fair proceedings against individual defendants.

In Yemen, Abu Dhabi’s policy increasingly diverged from Saudi Arabia’s. Its relations with president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi deteriorated rapidly in 2015, and UAE-backed forces battled his forces on several occasions in Aden. Saudi Arabia sought to restore a unified Yemeni government, while Abu Dhabi supported southern aspirations for an independent state and backed separatist forces. After the UAE announced plans to reduce its forces, UAE-backed southern separatists seized Aden’s presidential palace and military facilities in August 2019. The competing aims weakened cooperation against the Houthis.

Abu Dhabi also adjusted its dealings with Yemeni Islamist actors. Mohammed bin Zayed hosted Islah chairman Mohammed Abdullah al-Yadoumi and secretary-general Abdulwahab Ahmed al-Ansi in Abu Dhabi on November 14, 2018. He had met them previously at a December 2017 gathering hosted by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. The later meeting took place without Saudi participation, reflecting Abu Dhabi’s own effort to retain influence in Yemen’s political settlement despite its opposition to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Houthi attacks brought the Yemen war directly to Abu Dhabi. The Houthis claimed a 2017 attack on the Barakah nuclear reactor and a 2018 Samad-3 drone attack on Abu Dhabi International Airport; those claims do not by themselves establish that the strikes occurred as described. In January 2022, a Houthi drone strike on an Abu Dhabi fuel storage depot killed three people and injured six, while another strike caused a fire near the airport. On January 24, UAE air defenses intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles targeting Abu Dhabi, with no casualties reported. The U.S. Air Force responded to multiple incoming threats during the attack near the city.

The January attacks followed a diplomatic approach to Iran. Abu Dhabi national security adviser Tahnoun bin Zayed visited the Iranian regime on December 6, 2021, and invited Ebrahim Raisi to Abu Dhabi. That visit and the subsequent Houthi strikes showed the pressure Abu Dhabi faced while maintaining contacts with Tehran, a defense partnership with Washington, and growing ties with Israel. They also exposed civilian facilities in the capital to violence connected with the wider Yemen conflict.

Present day

Abu Dhabi remains the UAE’s capital and the seat of its leading emirate. Mohammed bin Zayed’s presidency and Khalid bin Muhammad’s appointment as crown prince continue the close connection between Abu Dhabi’s ruling family and federal leadership. The city’s political role rests partly on the emirate’s oil resources, but its international position also reflects military cooperation, investment, diplomacy, and institutions based in the capital. Its relationship with Dubai illustrates both the separate interests of the emirates and the financial ties that hold the federation together.

The Abraham Accords remain a defining part of Abu Dhabi’s recent history. Diplomatic ties with Israel, AJC Abu Dhabi’s permanent office, and worship at the Abrahamic Family House have made Jewish participation in the city’s public life more visible. At the same time, religious communities operate within a permit and licensing system. Abu Dhabi’s record thus includes new spaces for interfaith contact alongside continuing questions about religious freedom and the treatment of defendants in state security cases.

Regional security remains equally central. Al-Dhafra Air Base anchors cooperation with the United States, while the 2022 Houthi strikes demonstrated the city’s exposure to attacks arising from conflicts beyond the UAE. Abu Dhabi’s support for southern Yemeni forces has at times put it at odds with Saudi Arabia’s goal of a unified Yemen. Its leaders have continued to pursue diplomacy with regional governments while defending the capital against threats linked to those conflicts.