--- category: City created: 2026-09-23 location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates summary: Trading emirate of the United Arab Emirates whose ruling family was among BCCI's ostensible Arab owners, and through which a 1985 BCCI-backed TOW missile deal with Iran was channeled. tags: - City - UAE - BCCI - PersianGulf - IranContra - Arms updated: 2026-09-23 --- Dubai is one of the seven emirates of the [United Arab Emirates](/places/united-arab-emirates/) and its principal trading city, on the coast of the Persian Gulf. Its ruler, Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, joined [Sheikh Zayed](/people/zayed-bin-sultan-al-nahayan/) of [Abu Dhabi](/places/abu-dhabi/) in founding the federation in 1971. The ruling family of Dubai was among the Gulf families named as owners of the [Bank of Credit and Commerce International](/organizations/bank-of-credit-and-commerce-international/) (BCCI) in its early years, and the bank's protocol department in [Karachi](/places/karachi/) served visiting rulers from Dubai and Abu Dhabi.[^1][^2][^3] ### Oil and the Federation In the 19th century Dubai was one of the Trucial States that signed agreements with Britain under which they undertook not to cede territory except to the [United Kingdom](/places/united-kingdom/) and not to deal with foreign governments without British consent, in return for British protection. Pearling sustained the coast into the early 20th century, until the depression of the late 1920s and early 1930s and the Japanese cultured pearl ruined the industry. Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum, de facto ruler of Dubai from 1939, replaced pearling revenue by entering the shipping business, and in 1969 Dubai began exporting oil.[^1] After Britain announced in early 1968 that it would withdraw from the Gulf by the end of 1971, Zayed and Rashid met on February 18, 1968, at Al Samha, near the south-western boundary of Dubai, and from February 25 to 27, 1968, the rulers of nine Gulf states met in Dubai in a constitutional conference that agreed eleven points as the basis for a "Federation of the Arab Emirates." On July 18, 1971, the rulers of six of the seven Trucial States decided to form a union, and the United Arab Emirates was formally established on December 2, 1971, with Dubai among its six founding emirates.[^1][^2] ### BCCI A record of BCCI's shareholders drawn from [Bank of America](/organizations/bank-of-america/) files as of September 30, 1977, listed [ICIC](/organizations/icic/) as majority owner with 50.1 percent, Bank of America with 30 percent, and as the largest Arab owner "Majid Al-Futaim of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates at just 4 percent," with members of the Abu Dhabi ruling family holding 3.4 percent. The Senate report of [John Kerry](/people/john-kerry/) and [Hank Brown](/people/hank-brown/) concluded that the list showed that "the Pakistanis actually owned BCCI at a time when to the outside world, the bank was ostensibly owned by oil-rich Middle Eastern Arabs, including the ruling families of Bahrain, Sharjah, Dubai, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, as well as that of Abu Dhabi."[^3] [Nazir Chinoy](/people/nazir-chinoy/), who served with BCCI in Pakistan from 1978 to 1982, told the Senate that the protocol department run by [Sani Ahmed](/people/sani-ahmed/) employed about 120 people in 1978, whose job was "to establish and further the rapport with the sheiks of and ruling families of Dubai and Abu Dhabi." He said: "Ninety-percent of the time, the guests were from Abu Dhabi and Dubai; occasionally, Oman, and the other emirates. They would come for shooting at the Game Reserves." Cash for the visits, 5 million rupees at a time, "would be carried out in steel trunks."[^3] ### The TOW Missile Invoice Documents obtained by the Senate subcommittee included a pro forma invoice of November 21, 1985, for 1,250 American-made TOW missiles, described as "lift trucks" for bank and customs purposes, supplied by B.R. & W. Industries and signed by Ben Banerjee, together with BCCI telexes and letters showing the bank providing counter guarantees and letters of credit for the transaction in November and December 1985. The deal involved the government of [Iran](/places/iran/) and its bank, Bank Melli, and was "channeled through the Arabian Gate General Trading Co. of Dubai, United Arab Emirates." Chinoy confirmed to Senate staff that Banerjee banked with BCCI in London and was involved in "large dealings with Iran." At the trial of Michael Aspin, his brother Leslie Aspin testified that the TOW sale was a legitimate sale authorized by the [United States](/places/united-states/) government as part of a 1984 to 1985 effort to ransom the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) officer William Buckley, with the weapons to be moved from Portugal to Iran.[^4] [^1]: United Arab Emirates, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, "History," archived copy. https://web.archive.org/web/2024/https://www.mofa.gov.ae/en/the-uae/history [^2]: United Arab Emirates Government, "History," The Official Portal of the UAE Government, accessed September 23, 2026. https://u.ae/en/about-the-uae/history [^3]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 3, "The Origin and Early Years of BCCI." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/03hist.htm [^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, The CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm