Queen Elizabeth to visit UAE

The British monarch will make a state visit in the autumn, her second trip to the country.

It will be the Queen's first trip to the UAE for more than 30 years.

Queen Elizabeth II is to make a state visit to the UAE in the autumn, at the invitation of Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed, President of the UAE and Ruler of Abu Dhabi. The British monarch will also visit Oman. This will be the second visit by the queen and Duke of Edinburgh to the UAE, the previous visit having taken place in 1979. In 1979 the queen and Prince Philip visited the UAE as part of a six-nation tour of Gulf states on the royal yacht Britannia, which the press at the time said sailed back to Britain laden with millions of dollars worth of gifts from Arab royals. Newspapers in 1979 reported that the regulations were bent for the queen when she visited Abu Dhabi's Jebel Dhana Oil Tanker Fram and Pipeline Terminal, where 50 British and 200 Arab and Asian men worked, since women were normally forbidden to visit the site, according to Islamic rules. The Washington Post reported in February 1979: "The queen chatted briefly with several British engineers, and was then invited to the tent of the local sheikh for a traditional cup of sweet Arab black coffee." * With WAM