The United Arab Emirates (also the UAE or the
Emirates) is a Middle Eastern country situated in the southeast
of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia on the Persian Gulf,
comprising seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajmān, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras
al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Qaiwain. Before 1971, they were
known as the Trucial States or Trucial Oman, in
reference of a nineteenth-century truce between the British and some
Arab Sheikhs. It borders Oman and Saudi Arabia. The country is rich
in oil.