Saudi Gazette report

THE HAGUE — Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the Netherlands Abdulaziz Abu Haimad said that the verdict of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague on Tuesday over the air space dispute with Qatar has nothing to do with the merits of the lawsuit filed by Qatar.

He said that Saudi Arabia would, however, respect the court’s decision, explaining that the ruling issued by the court was limited to clarifying the extent of jurisdiction of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The court pronounced its verdict over an appeal submitted by Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt, questioning the jurisdiction of ICAO to examine complaints filed by Qatar against the four countries based on the Chicago Agreement of 1944, which allows planes to fly into foreign airspace. These countries are of the view that the ICJ is a better venue for taking up the dispute rather than ICAO, the UN’s aviation body.

The ICJ ruled that it was the ICAO that has jurisdiction in the airspace row. The four countries appeared before the ICJ to outline their claims against Qatar in a case related with the 2017 blockade of that country imposed by these countries.