DUBAI: A UAE Civil Aviation Authority official has said they are considering rerouting UAE aircraft to avoid future intercepts involving Qatari fighter jets.
And on Tuesday Bahrain released radar tracks it said showed Qatari fighter jets passing by Emirati commercial airliners on their way to the island nation.
Emirati officials had on Monday described the fly-bys saying the fighter jets “intercepted” their civilian aircraft. But Qatari officials deny their jets intercepted the aircraft and on Tuesday dismissed the footage as “unauthenticated videos.”
Meanwhile the UAE will file a complaint with the International Civil Aviation Organization stating that Qatari jets came within little more than three kilometers of Emirati passenger flights, Saif Al-Suwaidi, head of the general civil aviation authority said on Tuesday.
“Today we will file our complaint to the International Civil Aviation Organization about the two serious incidents, along with the evidence that we’ve gathered, and ask for the intervention of the council to stop Qatar from repeating the act,” he said.
He said the UAE will accuse Qatar of violating the Chicago Convention, which governs the use of airspace, in its complaint.
“It’s a very obvious violation,” Suwaidi told Reuters – Doha denies the allegations. Suwaidi added in a separate interview that the UAE was also looking at rerouting flights to Bahrain to avoid Qatari airspace.
“We are now studying changing the route to another one which is very far from Qatar,” Suwaidi added. “However that will take some time as we have to reach an agreement with Bahrain.”
In a later statement released Tuesday the UAE Ministry of foreign affairs said it “strongly condemned” Qatar’s recent actions in what it described as an “unjustified escalation” and demanded that Doha “adhered to the rules of international law.”
(With Arab News)
