Qatar denies intercepting Emirati plane

Manama : Qatar on Monday denied its fighter jets intercepted a passenger plane of United Arab Emirates (UAE). Qatar’s foreign ministry released a statement, saying the UAE’s claim was false. “The State of #Qatar announces that the claims of Qatari fighter-planes intercepting a UAE civil aircraft is completely false. A detailed statement will follow,” Lolwah Rashid Alkhater, Spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, wrote on Twitter. Earlier, The Gulf News had quoted the UAE’s General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) as claiming that, “it had received a complaint from one of the UAE’s national carriers that one of its aircraft on a flight to Manama on a normal route had been intercepted by Qatari fighters.” According to media reports, Doha on Saturday complained to the United Nations Security Council that the Emirati fighter jets recently violated its airspace at least twice. The incident has come at a time when Qatar, since mid-2017, has been facing a diplomatic and economic blockade by the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain, over accusations of supporting “terrorism”. ANI