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Doha – Qatar

Qatar has welcomed the International Court of Justice's rejection of the appeals filed by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt against a decision by the world civil aviation body in favour of Qatar over sovereign airspace.

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 2018 ruled it had the jurisdiction to handle a dispute brought by Qatar, which accused its neighbours of violating a convention that regulates the free passage of its passenger planes through foreign airspace.

But the four allies disagreed, saying the ICAO was not the right body to judge in the dispute and that its decision to do so was "manifestly flawed and in violation of fundamental principles of due process and the right to be heard."

The ruling of the International Court of Justice came in favour of Qatar in the appeals submitted by the blockading countries, according to the Government Communications Office of Qatar. It said ICJ ruled with the jurisdiction of the (ICAO) organization to consider the complaint of the State of Qatar, against the background that the blockading countries since June 2017 closed their airspace to the Qatari planes and did not allow them to fly to and from Airports in the territories of these countries are in flagrant violation of international law and related international agreements.

And based on the rulings of the International Court of Justice, the ICAO Council is to resume dispute resolution procedures in the complaint submitted by the State of Qatar.

His Excellency Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, Minister of Communications and Communications, said, “We welcome the decision issued today by the International Court of Justice, which will place the blockading countries before the balance of justice and international accountability for violating the provisions of international agreements related to international civil aviation, and we are confident that the International Civil Aviation Organization will You acknowledge that these procedures are illegal.

"The International Court of Justice ruling is part of a series of rulings that reveal the blockade countries' insistence on ignoring international law, but every time, their arguments are refuted and the validity of the position of the State of Qatar is confirmed."

Since the imposition of the illegal blockade in June 2017, the State of Qatar has continued to address the illegal measures taken by the blockade countries and their violation of international law, and the International Court of Justice decision issued today is the latest in a series of international rulings that confirm the integrity of the position of the State of Qatar, where this ruling comes in the wake of The ruling issued by the World Trade Organization last June, which recognized that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia violated its obligations under the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement), by refusing to take action against the complex piracy carried out by B-channel Que, and above all, support and encourage this piracy.

It is worth noting that the State of Qatar had lodged a complaint before the Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) against the blockading states after the failure of repeated attempts to reach an amicable settlement of the issue due to the intransigence of those countries.