Special to WorldTribune.com
ABU DHABI — The United Arab Emirates has begun recruitment under the new military conscription law.
On July 13, hundreds of young men lined up at draft centers in Abu Dhabi, Al Ein, Sharjah and Western Region.
Officials said the draft was meant to bolster the UAE’s defense amid the threat from neighboring Iran. They said recruits would be given priority for jobs and housing.
“Through military discipline, our youth will gain physical strength, endurance, knowledge, and spirit,” Maj. Gen. Ahmed Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, chairman of the National Service, said.
In the first stage, 7,000 would be mobilized in the UAE military by September 2014. The first stage of the draft, limited to males ages 18 to 30, would end on July 24.
The UAE has required high school graduates to serve nine months. Non-graduates were meant to stay in the military for two years. Officials said women could volunteer.
“You will preserve and defend those basic principles on which our nation has been built,” Al Nahyan said.
UAE institutes military draft as Iran’s shadow grows added by World Tribune on
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