<Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> You may need rendering support to display the Arabic text in this article correctly . </Td> </Tr> </Table> <Tr> <Td> </Td> <Td> You may need rendering support to display the Arabic text in this article correctly . </Td> </Tr> <P> The United Arab Emirates (UAE; Arabic: دولة الإمارات العربية المتحدة ‎ Dawlat al - Imārāt al -' Arabīyah al - Muttaḥidah), sometimes simply called the Emirates (Arabic: الإمارات ‎ al - Imārāt), is a federal sovereign absolute monarchy in Western Asia at the southeast end of the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf, bordering Oman to the east and Saudi Arabia to the south, as well as sharing maritime borders with Qatar to the west and Iran to the north . The country is a federation of seven emirates consisting of Abu Dhabi (which serves as the capital), Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al - Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al - Quwain . Each emirate is governed by a Ruler; together, they jointly form the Federal Supreme Council . One of the rulers serves as the President of the United Arab Emirates . In 2013, the UAE's population was 9.2 million, of which 1.4 million are Emirati citizens and 7.8 million are expatriates . </P> <P> Human occupation of the present UAE has been traced back to the emergence of anatomically modern man from Africa some 125,000 BCE through finds at the Faya - 1 site in Mleiha, Sharjah . Burial sites dating back to the Neolithic Age and the Bronze Age include the oldest known such inland site at Jebel Buhais . Following decades of maritime conflict, the coastal emirates became known as the Trucial States with the signing of a Perpetual Treaty of Maritime Peace with the British in 1819 (ratified in 1853 and again in 1892), which established the Trucial States as a British Protectorate . This arrangement ended with independence and the establishment of the United Arab Emirates on 2 December 1971, immediately following the British withdrawal from its treaty obligations . Six emirates joined the UAE in 1971, the seventh, Ras al - Khaimah, joined the federation on the 10th February 1972 . </P>

United arab emirates is a country situated in which continent