Going back to the old times when His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan was striving hard with rulers of the neighbouring Emirates to form the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.), Al Ittihad was launched in October 1969. Appropriately named by its birth – Al Ittihad means: united. In the beginning of its starting period, Al Ittihad was a free-of-charge weekly paper. Just months after the U.A.E was created, the weekly paper went daily in April 1972.

In 1996, Al Ittihad became the first U.A.E. newspaper to go online.

Al Ittihad has kept up its reputation and is considered a leading well-respected Arabic newspaper of today. Al Ittihad has its distributing system in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras Al Khaimah and other emirates, as well as offices located in Beirut and Cairo and correspondents around the world. Al Ittihad owns one of the most modern printing press in the region, employees over 100 full time journalists and has a network of correspondents across the world as well as offices in major cities, universally.

Geeta Chhabra