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DUBAI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan on Wednesday named his eldest son Sheikh Khaled crown prince of Abu Dhabi, the UAE capital.

Sheikh Mohamed, who is ruler of Abu Dhabi, also appointed his brother Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan vice president of the UAE alongside Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum. He named his other brothers Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed Al-Nahyan as deputy rulers of Abu Dhabi.

The new crown prince, Sheikh Khaled, 41, is already a member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Office. He has overseen many of the emirate’s biggest recent development projects.

Sheikh Khaled is the chairman of several boards, including the UAE Genomics Council, the executive committee of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, and the Advanced Technology Research Council. He is married, with a son and two daughters.

The new appointments follow a reshuffle this month at the top of Abu Dhabi’s two biggest sovereign wealth funds. Sheikh Tahnoun, who is also the UAE’s national security adviser and controls a large business empire, was named chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed also replaced himself with Sheikh Mansour, owner of Manchester City football club, as chairman of Mubadala, Abu Dhabi’s second-biggest wealth fund.

Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al-Nahyan, the first president of the UAE and the driving force behind its creation in 1971, ruled from then until his death in 2004. He had appointed his eldest son Sheikh Khalifa as his successor, and Sheikh Mohamed took over when Sheikh Khalifa died in May 2022.