in the Eastern Region of Abu Dhabi and Head of the Courts Department in Al Ain. Zayed was the Ruler's Representative in the Eastern Region before he became the Emir of Abu Dhabi. A few months later the position was handed to Tahnoun bin Mohammed Al Nahyan. On 1 February 1969, Khalifa was nominated the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and on the next day he was appointed Head of the Abu Dhabi Department of Defence. In that post, he oversaw the build up of the Abu Dhabi Defense Force, which after 1971 became the core of the UAE Armed Forces. As Deputy Prime Minister Following the establishment of the UAE in 1971, Khalifa assumed several positions in Abu Dhabi as head of the Abu Dhabi Cabinet. After the reconstruction of the Cabinet of the United Arab Emirates, the Abu Dhabi Cabinet was replaced by the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, and Khalifa became the 2nd Deputy Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates (23 December 1973) and the Chairman of the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi (20 January 1974). In May 1976, he became deputy commander of the UAE Armed Forces, under the President. He also became the head of the Supreme Petroleum Council in the late 1980s. The post granted him wide powers in energy matters. He was also the chairman of the Environmental Research and Wildlife Development Agency. As President: 2004–2022 He succeeded to the post of Emir of Abu Dhabi and was elected President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on 3 November 2004, replacing his father Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who had died the day before. He had been acting president since his father became ill prior to his death. On 1 December 2005, the President announced that half of the members of the Federal National Council (FNC), an assembly that advises the president, would be indirectly elected. Half of the council's members were still appointed by the leaders of the emirates. In 2009, Khalifa was re-elected as President for a second five-year term. In 2010, Khalifa was described in a WikiLeaks cable signed by then U.S. ambassador Richard G. Olson as a "distant and uncharismatic personage." The cable said that Khalifa had risked his reputation and the UAE’s future since 1990, when he described the United States as willing to shed blood to maintain international order and stability in the Gulf. In March 2011,