A member of Qatar’s ruling family, who appeared in a video in which he said he was being held against his will, left the UAE, the United Arab Emirates said on Sunday.
Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali al-Thani emerged as a potential contender in Qatar following a row last June between Qatar and some Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. They have accused Qatar of supporting terrorism, which Doha denies.
“I am now in Abu Dhabi, a guest of Sheikh Mohammed, and I am no longer in a hospitality situation. I am in the process of making a reservation and they tell me what I’m looking forward to,” Sheikh Abdullah said in the video recording.
“I just tell you that if I have a need, the people of Qatar are innocent of it.”
The authenticity of the registration has not yet been verified.
An official at the UAE Foreign Ministry said that Sheikh Abdullah came to Abu Dhabi as a guest at his request after the Qatari government imposed restrictions on him.
“He is free to act with his movements and he has expressed his desire to leave the country where all the procedures have been facilitated without any interference hindering this,” the official said in a statement published by the official Emirates News Agency (WAM), but gave no details of his destination.
The official described the alleged detention of Sheikh Abdullah against him as “fabrications,” stressing that “these practices and allegations have become a continuous approach to the State of Qatar in the management of the crisis,” according to the agency.
Qatar said the lack of communication with Abu Dhabi made it difficult to ascertain what had happened to Sheikh Abdullah, but was monitoring the situation.
“In principle, Qatar stands with the legal rights of any individual and his family has the right to resort to all legal means to preserve his rights,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Ali Abdullah al-Naimi, the editor-in-chief of an Emirati news website that also heads the Education and Knowledge Department in Abu Dhabi, said Sheikh Abdullah had originally gone to the UAE capital, where he had family knowledge, at his request for fear of his safety in Qatar.
Al-Naimi said he believed Qatar had breached the registration.
Sheikh Abdullah criticized his cousins in Doha during interviews with Gulf media and appeared with Saudi officials.