 Dubai and the other ' <unk> states ' had long been a British protectorate where the British took care of foreign policy and defence , as well as arbitrating between the rulers of the Eastern Gulf . This was to change with PM Harold Wilson 's announcement , on 16 January 1968 , that all British troops were to be withdrawn from ' East of Aden ' . The decision was to pitch the coastal emirates , together with Qatar and Bahrain , into fevered negotiations to fill the political vacuum that the British withdrawal would leave behind . 
