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July 12, 2005

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has agreed to allow NATO and the United States to establish a logistics base, and training facility for combat aircraft (mainly F-16s), on its territory. Both of these functions have already been taking place in the UAE, but unofficially. The UAE has always been tight with the United States, as a counterweight to Saudi Arabia and Iran. Both of these neighboring countries have territorial disputes with the UAE, and both could quickly overrun the UAE if they wanted to. So the UAE has sought powerful allies. Only a few hundred foreign soldiers (mostly British, Canadian, French and American) will be stationed in the UAE to maintain these logistics and training facilities. The rest of the needed personnel will be from the UAE, or other countries in the region.