A member of one of the seven royal families of the United Arab Emirates defected to Qatar and asked for political asylum.
Last May, the United Arab Emirates, part of an Arab coalition led by Saudi Arabia, cut off all diplomatic relations with Qatar and are also participating in a large-scale trade embargo against Qatar, accused of clandestinely supporting the Iran and to finance Iranian-backed militant groups operating in the region.
On the morning of May 16, 2018, security officers in Qatar's capital, Doha, were surprised when Sheikh Rashid bin Hamad al-Sharqi, the second son of the Emir of Fujairah, one of the seven kingdoms that make up the United Arab Emirates. United appeared before them to ask for political asylum and protection from the Arab Emirates.
The prince, in an interview with the New York Times, criticized the behavior of the Arab coalition and in particular that of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi that dominates the United Arab Emirates and the other six kingdoms.
Sheikh Rashid told the Times that Emirati officials are upset about the country's military intervention in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting against Iranian-backed rebels. The increasingly bloody war is now in its third year with no clear end in sight. According to the prince, Abu Dhabi's rulers have repeatedly failed to consult the country's other six kingdoms before making major decisions about the war in Yemen.
The Sheikh also accused the UAE leadership of money laundering and said it was common for the country's rulers to ask UAE royalty to make secret payments "to people they did not know in other countries", in direct violation international money laundering laws.
Prince Rashid also said that the United Arab Emirates government had tried to blackmail it by threatening to disclose audiovisual material that would have discredited its reputation.
The Times, after unsuccessfully contacting the government of the Emirate of Fujairah, approached the UAE embassy in Washington, DC, but officials declined to comment.