UAE lodges complaint against Qatar at UN for airspace violation

CAIRO – 27 March 2018: The United Arab Emirates lodged Monday a complaint at the UN International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) against Qatar for violating Bahraini airspace and jeopardizing a UAE civilian aircraft.

UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement that two Qatari fighter jets were spotted Monday at 2:35 p.m. flying over international waters near Bahrain without permission.

The two jets flew, according to the statement, underneath a UAE Airbus 320 heading from Fujairah airport to Rome, which led the Bahraini Air Surveillance to intervene. The UAE aircraft managed to fly at a higher altitude of 35,000 feet to avoid the jets.

Qatar News Agency denied the claims on Monday, saying they attempt to cover up previous violations of Qatari airspace.

On June 5, 2017, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Libya and Yemen decided to cut all diplomatic ties with Qatar, hurling allegations that the state supports terrorism.

In January 2018, The UAE said that Qatari fighter jets intercepted two civil aircrafts during their regular flights to Bahrain, while Qatar insisted on denying the news. The UAE lodged a complaint against Qatar at the United Nations aviation agency the following day.

Qatar had previously filed a complaint to the UNSC in December 2017, about an alleged violation of its airspace by an Emirati military aircraft, state news agency QNA reported.

Qatar has signed several multi-billion dollar deals for purchasing fighter jets and other military equipment since the Qatar crisis started.

The boycotted country signed a €6 billion (about $7 billion) deal to purchase 24 Typhoon fighters from Britain, BBC reported.

According to the British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson, the order of Typhoons is the biggest in a decade.

During his visit to Doha on December 7, French President Emmanuel Macron said he agreed on some $14.13 billion deals with Qatar. The deals included the purchase of 12 French-made Rafale fighter jets. Qatar said it would possibly purchase 36 more fighter jets.