UAE Flag

The UAE flag has three horizontal stripes — green (top), white (middle), black (bottom) — crossed by a vertical red stripe on the hoist. The red stripe spans the full height of the flag at one-quarter of its width.

The four Pan-Arab colours — red, green, white, and black — appear in dozens of Arab national flags. They derive from 13th-century Arabic poetry: "White are our deeds, black our battles, green our fields, red our swords."

The UAE was formed on 2 December 1971 from seven Trucial States that had been British protectorates. The flag was designed by 19-year-old Emirati student Abdullah Mohammed Al Maainah, who won a national competition to create the flag for the new federation.

The design uses the Pan-Arab colours that appeared in the flags of the Arab Revolt (1916) and have since been adopted by many Arab states, representing shared heritage and aspirations for Arab unity.