Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan
[5] Khalifa was the eldest son of Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the first president of the United Arab Emirates.
As crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Khalifa carried out some aspects of the presidency in a de facto capacity from the late 1990s when his father experienced health problems.
[6] He succeeded his father as the ruler of Abu Dhabi on 2 November 2004, and the Federal Supreme Council elected him as president of the UAE the following day.
[7] During Khalifa's presidency, the United Arab Emirates became a regional economic powerhouse and its non-oil economy grew.
[8][7] Khalifa was viewed as a pro-Western modernizer whose low-key approach helped steer the country through a tense era in regional politics and forged closer ties with the United States and Israel.
His half-brother Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan carried out public affairs of the state and day-to-day decision-making of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
[21][22] In March 1976, His Highness took on the task of founding with his father and leading the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).
[6] On 1 December 2005, Khalifa announced that half of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC), an assembly that advises the president, would be indirectly elected.
"[30] The cable said that Khalifa had risked his reputation and the UAE's future since 1990, when he described the United States as willing to shed blood to maintain international order and stability in the Gulf.
[34] In 2013, he commissioned Azzam, the longest motor yacht ever built and measuring 590 ft (180 m) long, with a cost between $400–600 million.
[40][41] Seychellois government records show that, between 1995 and 2010, Sheikh Khalifa had spent $2 million buying up more than 66 acres of land on the Seychelles' main island of Mahé, where what was to be his palace was being built.
[42] 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 Sheikh Khalifa.
[42] 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 is home to more than 8000 residents.
[42] Local government agencies and officials from Khalifa's office responded quickly to the problem, sending in technical experts and engineers.
[42] Through the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, the UAE supported the Yemeni people in August 2015 with 3,000 tonnes of food and aid supplies.
[43][44][45] In April 2016, Sheikh Khalifa was named in the Panama Papers by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists;[46] he reportedly owned 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.
[50] His half-brother Sheikh Mohamed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan succeeded him as ruler of Abu Dhabi upon his death,[51] and was elected president of the UAE the next day.
[52] The Ministry of Presidential Affairs announced a 40-day national mourning with flags at half-mast along with a three-day suspension of work in private firms and the official entities at the federal and local levels of institution.
Bahrain,[54] Lebanon,[55] Oman,[56] Mauritania,[57] Qatar,[58] Egypt,[59] Morocco,[60] Maldives[61] declared official mourning and flags at half-mast for three days.
