Opinion
The most powerful prince in Washington
For decades, Prince Mohammed bin Zayed has been a key US ally, following Washington's lead. But now he is going his own way.
David D. KirkpatrickAbu Dhabi |Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the 29-year-old commander of the almost negligible air force of the United Arab Emirates, had come to Washington shopping for weapons.
In 1991, in the months after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, the young prince wanted to buy so much military hardware to protect his own oil-rich monarchy – from Hellfire missiles to Apache helicopters to F-16 jets – that Congress worried he might destabilise the region.
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