What if the United Arab Emirates were bigger?
In this timeline, the Trucial States expanded further more after WW1 by occupy and later control the Ottoman lands in the Persian Gulf. During the last years of British control in the area, the proposal to create a federation of the British territories of the Trucial States, Qatar, Bahrain, Al-Hasa and Kuwait. In 1972, the United Arab Emirates declare their independence from Britain under a united federation of all the emirates of the Trucial States. The United Arab Emirates becomes one of the most oil rich countries on earth and one of the richest in the Middle East. In 1990, Iraq attacked the UAE with the objective to control the UAE's oil reserve due to the debt accumulated by the Iraq-Iran war, the war that at the beginning was to only take the region of Kuwait, quickly escalated to a full-blown anti Iraqi coalition that ended in a decisively victory for the UAE. In the current year of 2026, the United Arab Emirates continue to grow as one of the richest countries in the world with plan to diversify its economy from oil to more renewable energies and expand its influences in the region, seeking to become the Venice of the 21st Century Middle East.