Qatar accuses Bahrain of airspace violation

Mohamed Fahd

DOHA (AA) - Qatar on Wednesday lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council against Bahrain, claiming the latter violated its airspace, according to Qatar’s official news agency.

The news agency reported that Qatar’s permanent representative at the UN had filed a complaint with UNSC officials alleging that a Bahraini fighter jet had breached sovereign Qatari airspace on Sunday.

Alya Ahmed Al Thani, Qatar’s permanent representative at the UN, reportedly delivered the complaint to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Karel van Oosterom, the current UNSC president.

The complaint described the alleged airspace breach as a “serious violation” of international law and Qatar’s national sovereignty.

Qatar, it added, would take “all necessary measures” to protect its airspace, borders and national security in accordance with international law.

It is the second time for Doha to accuse Bahrain of violating its airspace after having lodged a similar complaint with the UNSC on Feb. 28.

Late Tuesday, Bahrain filed its own complaint against Qatar with the International Civil Aviation Organization, accusing Doha of “endangering civil air traffic in the region”.

And one day before that, the United Arab Emirates alleged that two Qatari fighter jets had “intercepted” two Emirati civilian aircraft over Bahraini territory.

Recent months have seen a flurry of tit-for-tat accusations of airspace breaches between Qatar, the UAE and Bahrain.

The accusations come amid an ongoing crisis in inter-Arab relations in which Qatar on one hand and the UAE and Bahrain on the other find themselves on opposing sides.

Last summer, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain all abruptly severed diplomatic and trade ties with Qatar, which they accused of supporting terrorism and standing too close to Shia Iran.

The Saudi-led bloc has threatened to impose further sanctions on Doha if the latter fails to accept a long list of demands, including the closure of Qatar-based television broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Qatar denies the accusations against it, describing attempts to isolate it by its fellow Arab Gulf states as a violation of international law.