Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, not Salman, is the most powerful Arab ruler

Prince Mohammed bin Zayed grew the UAE's power by following America's lead. He now has an increasingly bellicose agenda of his own. And US President Donald Trump seems to be following him

Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, the 29-year-old commander of the almost negligible air force of the United Arab Emirates, had come to Washington shopping for weapons.
 
In 1991, in the months after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, the young prince wanted to buy so much military hardware to protect his own oil-rich monarchy — from Hellfire missiles to Apache helicopters to F-16 jets — that Congress worried he might destabilise the region.
 
But the Pentagon, trying to cultivate accommodating allies in the Gulf, had identified Prince Mohammed as a promising partner. The favorite son of the semi-literate Bedouin who founded