<p>There is no shortage of speculation that Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak could join the list.<br /><br />The Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya reported on Saturday that the former Egyptian president was making plans to head to the Emirates. A Kuwait daily, Al-Qabas, on Friday said UAE officials have offered Mubarak haven in Al Ain, a desert city near the Omani border.<br />UAE officials have made no public comment on the reports, which were so persistent that the UAE’s state news agency WAM issued a rare denial on Sunday of bulletins that Mubarak’s plane had landed in the Sharjah emirate north of Dubai.<br /><br />But it would not be out of character to open their doors to a former leader with few options at home — just as neighbouring Saudi Arabia did for toppled Tunisian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month and Uganda’s Idi Amin in 1979.<br /><br />The roster of Emirate exiles includes former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, late Pakistani ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and a turncoat Chechen warlord who was gunned down by a killer with a gold-plated pistol.<br /><br />“It would not be a surprise if Mubarak ends up in the UAE. They have taken in others before,” said Theodore Karasik, a regional security expert at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. “The UAE was a loyal friend of Mubarak and this would be a reflection of that.”</p>
<p>There is no shortage of speculation that Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak could join the list.<br /><br />The Dubai-based network Al-Arabiya reported on Saturday that the former Egyptian president was making plans to head to the Emirates. A Kuwait daily, Al-Qabas, on Friday said UAE officials have offered Mubarak haven in Al Ain, a desert city near the Omani border.<br />UAE officials have made no public comment on the reports, which were so persistent that the UAE’s state news agency WAM issued a rare denial on Sunday of bulletins that Mubarak’s plane had landed in the Sharjah emirate north of Dubai.<br /><br />But it would not be out of character to open their doors to a former leader with few options at home — just as neighbouring Saudi Arabia did for toppled Tunisian ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali last month and Uganda’s Idi Amin in 1979.<br /><br />The roster of Emirate exiles includes former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, late Pakistani ex-premier Benazir Bhutto and a turncoat Chechen warlord who was gunned down by a killer with a gold-plated pistol.<br /><br />“It would not be a surprise if Mubarak ends up in the UAE. They have taken in others before,” said Theodore Karasik, a regional security expert at the Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis in Dubai. “The UAE was a loyal friend of Mubarak and this would be a reflection of that.”</p>