He said he decided to give the interview in the hope that public attention to his case would protect his family in Al Fujayrah from pressure by Abu Dhabi, and he appeared to hope that threatening further disclosures might give him leverage against Abu Dhabi as well. “I am the first in a royal family going out of the U.A.E. and telling everything about them,” he said.

But his arrival in Doha has also posed a dilemma for Qatar, in part because of uncertainty surrounding Sheikh Rashid’s dispute with Abu Dhabi.

The U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia have led a campaign to isolate Qatar, cutting off all diplomatic and trade relations in an effort to pressure the tiny petroleum-rich monarchy to adhere to a common foreign policy and join their crackdown on political Islam. Adding to the pressure, Abu Dhabi has played host to a handful of exiled members of the Qatari royal family, playing up their criticism of the current emir and promoting them as alternative leaders.

Qatar, however, has declined to publicly acknowledge Sheikh Rashid’s presence. The Qatari close to the royal family confirmed that Qatar had allowed Sheikh Rashid to stay, but a government spokesman declined repeated requests for comment.

Scholars of the region say Qatar is likely to fear escalating its confrontation with the U.A.E. by appearing to sponsor a dissident royal in exile. But the Qatari said the government was also uneasy about the details of Sheikh Rashid’s dispute with Abu Dhabi.

In the interview, Sheikh Rashid accused Abu Dhabi intelligence agencies of blackmailing him with the threat of releasing embarrassing videos of a personal nature. He called the videos “fabricated” but he declined to disclose the content of the material, raising the possibility that, if they emerged, the video might embarrass his Qatari hosts as well.

Sheikh Rashid also claimed that the intelligence agencies had pressured him to transfer tens of millions of dollars on their behalf to people he did not know in other countries, which would appear to violate Emirati and international laws against money laundering.