{{The decision by Saudi Arabia to bar Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir from overflying its airspace Sunday en route to Tehran for the swearing-in ceremony of Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani has opened a huge diplomatic row between the two countries.}}
The Sudanese Civil Aviation Authority (SCAA) has dismissed the clarifications given by the Saudi authorities that the plane had no prior approval to cross the airspace as per international procedures.
Khartoum termed a statement issued Monday by the Saudi Civil Aviation Corporation as containing “incorrect information.”
“The Air Control Centre in Khartoum had provided the Air Control Centre in Jeddah with full information about the Presidential plane’s journey. Jeddah had been informed that the plane was carrying a top VIP,” the SCAA said in a statement published by the Sudan News Agency on Wednesday.
“The plane’s captain had contacted Jeddah to sort out the issue and he remained flying for around 30 to 35 minutes awaiting a response, only to be later directed to return back to Khartoum,” read the Sudanese statement.
The Saudi aviation authority had insisted that no prior notice was given to the kingdom’s air surveillance centre. “The pilot only informed the kingdom that Bashir was on board after the plane was on its way back to Khartoum,” it claimed.
“The Sudanese government had failed to officially request a diplomatic permit 48 hours prior to the flight, as per regulations,” the Saudi statement went on.
According to Sudanese aviation expert Hashim Idriss, the normal international procedure on a president’s flight is to notify, before takeoff, the states through which the flight will overfly. “If the plane doesn’t have prior permission, then the state has the right to prevent it from overflying its airspace,” he
However, he suggested that in Bashir’s case, the problem was likely to be “political rather than technical.”
NMG
Leave a Reply