ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, broke his fast on Tuesday evening with national service recruits.
The iftar was held at the National Service School of the Presidential Guard in Saih Hafeer, on the Abu Dhabi-Dubai road.
He was accompanied by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai.
The recruits told Sheikh Mohammed that the national service was a “feather in the cap of youth” who learnt how best to serve the nation.
“It is a token of gratitude and allegiance to the leadership that brings us up to be future leaders in a state whose pillars had been laid by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan,” they said, according to Wam, the state news agency.
Sheikh Mohammed praised them for enduring training away from home and hailed their “perseverance and enthusiasm for the national duty”.
“I recall the first days of the formation of our Armed Forces 44 years ago by the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, who was then the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces,” he said. “Now, President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan is the Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, is the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
“We are all soldiers. I served in the army.”
Countries that doubted that the Emirates’ union would withstand challenges and build an organised and modern army now believe in its success, he said.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
