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United Arab Emirates minister of foreign affairs (born 1972)
Abdullah bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan (AbZ) is an Emirati politician serving as the foreign minister of the UAE since 2006, in addition to acting as one of four deputy prime ministers of the United Arab Emirates since 2009. He is the ninth son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates, Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. In 2020, he was a signatory of the Abraham Accords on behalf of the UAE.
Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the United Arab Emirates on 9 February 2006. In 2017, leaked emails highlighted that Abdullah bin Zayed maintained close contacts with former UK prime minister Tony Blair, who was being funded by the UAE as the Middle East peace envoy. Blair held a number of official meetings with the UAE Foreign Minister. The emails also revealed that Abdullah bin Zayed was one of the UAE royals who supported the envoy financially. In 2011, Abdullah's office separately sent US$2 million to Blair through Windrush Ventures, which channeled money for Tony Blair's commercial advisory work. The UAE Foreign Ministry also transferred $12 million to Windrush for Blair consultancy work in Colombia, Vietnam and Mongolia. In August 2017, Abdullah urged Iran and Turkey to end what the UAE claimed were "colonial" actions in Syria, signaling unease about diminishing Gulf Arab influence in the war, and calling for "the exit of those parties trying to reduce the sovereignty of the Syrian state." He further stated that "if Iran and Turkey continue the same historical, colonial and competitive behavior and perspectives between them in Arab affairs, we will continue in this situation not just in Syria today but tomorrow in some other country." On 14 February 2019, Abdullah said that Israel was justified in attacking Iranian targets in Syria.
On 15 September 2020, Abdullah signed the official Israel–United Arab Emirates peace agreement in a ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C., US. In February 2022, the UAE abstained in a UN Security Council vote to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine. Abdullah had a call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prior to the UN Security Council vote. In the phone call, Blinken spoke of the "importance of building a strong international response to support Ukrainian sovereignty through the UN Security Council." The Emirati report of the phone call did not include Blinken's statement. On 7 January 2025 while serving as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, he received Gideon Sa'ar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel, in Abu Dhabi to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries. In March 2026, during the 2026 Iran war, Abdullah told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that the UAE is prepared for a war lasting up to nine months.
Abdullah bin Zayed was born in Abu Dhabi on 30 April 1972. He holds a degree in political science from UAE University. He is married to Alyazia bint Saif Al Nahyan, who became an FAO Goodwill Ambassador extraordinary in 2010, and has five children: Fatima, Mohammed, Zayed, Saif and Theyab.
Biographical detail compiled from Wikipedia and Wikidata, which are edited openly and may be incomplete or out of date. Fleet data is our own. Source →
