Saudi Arabia pushes back against Sudan’s account of blocking Bashir’s plane
August 5, 2013 (KHARTOUM) –Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) issued a statement late on Monday refuting the account made by the Sudanese government over the incident by which president Omer Hassan al-Bashir’s plane was barred from crossing Saudi airspace.
On Sunday, Bashir was on his way to Iran to attend the inauguration ceremony of president-elect Hassan Rouhani. However, he was forced to turn back and return to Khartoum as a result of blocking his flight by aviation authorities at Jeddah airport.
The Sudanese leader was flying on a Saudi chartered jet instead of using one of the planes in the presidential fleet. In the past Sudanese officials say they resort to this measure when presidential planes are undergoing maintenance.
The flight crew was also non-Sudanese, state media said, and the plot circled inside Saudi airspace for an hour negotiating permission.
The Sudanese presidency issued a statement saying that despite obtaining prior clearance and informing the control tower in Jeddah that Bashir was on board, Saudi Arabia still refused to let the plane pass through to reach Tehran.
But GACA in its press release threw the blame entirely on Khartoum for failing to follow the protocol in obtaining flight clearance and claimed that it was not told of Bashir’s presence on the plane.
“The General Authority of Civil Aviation, according to its records and recordings would like to clarify that it denied permission to a private jet yesterday to cross the Kingdom’s airspace in a journey between Khartoum and Tehran international airports before entering the Saudi airspace for not obtaining the required regular transit permit, ” it said.
The statement empathized that the control tower at Khartoum airport did not inform their peers in Saudi Arabia of the plane’s takeoff time or when it was expected to enter Saudi airspace “in accordance with international norms”.
It also disclosed that, contrary to Sudan’s assertions, the pilot did not notify the Saudi authorities of Bashir’s presence until it was headed back to Khartoum airport.
“The government of Sudan did not make a formal request for a diplomatic permit for the aircraft which will fly his Excellency the President, either through the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum or the Sudanese embassy in Riyadh, according to the applicable international procedures which necessitates requesting permission 48 hours prior to departure of unscheduled diplomatic flights when crossing the airspace of states in the plane’s route,” GACA said.
“The civil aviation regulations in Saudi Arabia as well as the regulations of international civil aviation require that aircrafts obtain permits to cross their airspace and permits to land at their airports and non-compliance is considered a violation of these regulations”.
“The plane that was used [by Bashir] has a temporary permit to land at the kingdom’s International airports for personal use only by its owner and its current clearance does not allow it to be leased to others. The aircraft in use is registered outside the Kingdom for private use and regulations in that state or the kingdom do not allow its utilization for commercial purposes”.
GACA underscored that there are no other reasons behind its decision to block Bashir’s plane.
Khartoum said yesterday that is awaiting clarification from Riyadh and did not signal any intention of retaliating.
A similar situation occurred in June 2011 when Turkmenistan and Tajikistan refused to grant permission to Bashir’s plane in order to reach China where he was to start a state visit. As a result he was forced to return to Tehran where he was attending a summit there and decide on a new route to reach Beijing.
In Tehran, the Iranian government said that Sudanese embassy notified it of the incident and while expressing regret it avoided making any reference to Saudi Arabia, its longtime regional foe.
“We were informed by the Sudanese Embassy in Tehran that one of the countries on the flight route of Mr. Omer al-Bashir’s plane did not give permission for his plane to fly over its airspace,” foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said on Sunday.
“If it is true that this country has committed such an act, it is deeply regrettable” he said, adding that Tehran was investigating.
Observers speculated that Sudan’s growing ties with Iran could have irked the Saudis prompting them to block Bashir’s flight but the move is nonetheless highly unusual for Riyadh.
Sudan twice allowed Iranian warships to dock in Port Sudan last year, drawing concern by the United States and its allies in the Gulf.
In an editorial last November titled “The fall of masks between Iran and Sudan”, the Saudi pro-government Al-Riyadh newspaper blasted Khartoum over allowing entry to the Iranian warships, saying there is no “logical justification” for a relationship between the two countries.
Bashir has generally seen his travel difficulties mount in the wake of the two warrants issued by the Hague-based International Criminal Court in 2009 and 2010 for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide over the conflict in Sudan’s Darfur region.
He was forced to cancel many appearances since then for fear of arrest.
Saudi Arabia, however, was one country Bashir frequently visited after his indictment as Riyadh is not party to the ICC statute.
(ST)