ABU DHABI, 12 May 2007 — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to arrive here tomorrow on the first visit by an Iranian head of state to the United Arab Emirates since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Ahmadinejad is due in Abu Dhabi for his two-day trip just days after a visit by US Vice President Dick Cheney that highlighted the UAE’s close relations with the United States. Abu Dhabi’s ties with Washington have not prevented generally robust relations with Tehran although a shadow is cast by a territorial dispute over the tiny but strategically important islands of Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa that bestride the entrance to the Strait of Hormuz from the Gulf.
Despite the row, the two countries have wide-ranging commercial links, and the UAE is by far Iran’s largest trading partner. At least 400,000 of the UAE’s 4.1 million residents are Iranian, according to the Iranian Consulate in Dubai.
Ahmadinejad, who is expected to visit Oman today before traveling on to the UAE, paid a landmark visit to Saudi Arabia two months ago.
