Federation of Arab states (8)
I believe the answer is:
emirates
'federation of arab states' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
This is the entire clue.
(Other definitions for emirates that I've seen before include "Abu Dhabi and Dubai, say" , "Territory of independent rulers in the Islamic world" , "in the airline business" , "Eg, Abu Dhabi & Dubai" , "United Arab -------, Gulf state" .)