Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan
Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan at the Elysee Place in Paris, France in June 2017. He is allegedly holding a Qatari prince in the UAE against his will. Reuters

A member of the royal family of Qatar has claimed that he is being held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) against his will.

The claims were made in a video published on Sunday (14 January) on YouTube by Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali al-Thani.

Read more

In it, he faced the camera and said:"I'm currently in Abu Dhabi, being hosted by Sheikh Mohamed. But this is not a hosting status. Rather, it is a 'holding' one.

"They told me not to leave. I am afraid that anything could happen to me, and the people of Qatar would be blamed. So I just wanted to inform you that if anything happens to me, the people of Qatar are innocent," he said.

"I am a guest of Sheikh Mohammed and if anything happens to me after this, he is fully responsible."

Sheikh Abdullah is a son of a Qatari emir from the 1960s, Sheikh Ali bin Abdullah Al Thani. He helped resolve a deal which allowed Qatari pilgrims into Saudi Arabia after Riyadh broke ties with Qatar in 2017.

Majed al-Ansari, a professor at Qatar University, said the alleged detention is a tactic increasingly used by Riyadh and the UAE to deal with high-profile Arab figures.

He told al Jazeera: "This is now the way that Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi deal with their friends,"

"Sheikh Abdullah is of no use to these countries because their plan to orchestrate a coup in Qatar has failed miserably."

The UAE has denied the claims they were holding the sheikh and Ali Rashid al-Nuaimi, who heads Abu Dhabi's education department tweeted that Sheikh Abdullah is free to go "whenever he wants".

United Arab Emirates