Five members of Abu Dhabi's ruling family were relieved of their positions on the emirate's executive council on Sunday, in a reshuffle seen as a bid to inject new blood into the de facto cabinet.
The move -- the biggest change in the wealthy emirate's government in several years -- was made by Abu Dhabi's ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan, who is also president of the United Arab Emirates.
A sixth member of the ruling family was replaced as the head of Abu Dhabi's Department of Finance by non-royal Hamad al-Hurr al-Suwaidi, but kept his seat on the executive council.
State news agency WAM said the Abu Dhabi ruler also reappointed his half-brother and crown prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, as chairman of the executive council.
"It's a major shakeup. It is becoming clear that Sheikh Mohammed is a practical man who values the hard work of the people around him," Emirati political analyst Abdulkhaleq Abdullah said.
"The message is clear that he wants to depend on people who put in hard work to fulfil Abu Dhabi's 2030 (development) plan."
The council, trimmed from 18 members to 14, serves as a cabinet for the emirate and oversees the execution of its major development plans. Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE and controls about 95 percent of the country's oil resources.
A government official, who did not want to be named, said the restructuring was a "natural change. It's a process of injecting new blood that gives way for more vitality. It gives a chance for new generations to contribute and this is a good thing for the government."
Abu Dhabi is the largest and richest of the seven emirates that make up the UAE and runs an annual budget that dwarfs that of the federal government.
In Abu Dhabi, like the rest of the Gulf Arab region, politics are tightly controlled by the ruling family and much of the decision-making takes place behind closed doors. The emirate has a consultative council made up of citizens that has not met for years.
Earlier this year, Sheikh Khalifa, who was born in 1948, received medical treatment in Switzerland for an undisclosed condition. He returned to the UAE in September after a period of convalescence.
One royal, Sheikh Hazza bin Zayed al-Nahayan, was given a role in the council for the first time as its vice chairman.
(C) Reuters
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