UAE denies Qatar exile’s claim he was not free to leave

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — An exiled Qatari ruling family member once promoted by Saudi Arabia amid its ongoing dispute with Doha appeared in an online video Sunday claiming he was being held against his will in the United Arab Emirates, an allegation denied by Abu Dhabi.

The video of Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, a littleknown ruling family member until the boycott of Qatar by four Arab nations, offered new fuel to the months-long stalemated crisis. It immediately recalled the bizarre, now-reversed resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri while on a trip Riyadh, a Nov. 4 decision that was widely perceived as Saudi-orchestrated at the time.

The UAE’s state-run WAM news agency later said Sheikh Abdullah had freely left the country “at his request.”

The video, immediately aired by Doha-based news network Al-Jazeera, shows Sheikh Abdullah saying he was invited to Abu Dhabi as a guest of “Sheikh Mohammed.” Sheikh Abdullah appears to refer to Abu Dhabi’s powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, who enjoys strong ties to Saudi Arabia’s rulers.

“I am a guest of Sheikh Mohammed but it is not hosting now, it is now an imprisonment,” Sheikh Abdullah says. “They told me not to leave and I am afraid something will happen to me and they blame Qatar.”

The UAE, one of four countries boycotting Qatar, denied the claim.

The report on the WAM news agency said Sheikh Abdullah was “free in his movements” while in the UAE.