Montreal, Dhu-AlQa'dah 08, 1438, July 31, 2017, SPA -- The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council held an extraordinary session on Monday, following a complaint by the State of Qatar, in accordance with Article 54 (N) of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (Chicago 1944), which gives Member States the right to consider any matter relating to the Convention. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was represented by a delegation headed by Abdul Hakim Bin Mohammed Al Tamimi, President of the General Authority for Civil Aviation. The Chairman of the Council opened the meeting by emphasizing avoidance of political matters and focus on the technical issues that were the responsibility of ICAO. Then the Qatari Minister of Transport, head of the delegation of the State of Qatar, issued a statement attacking the four countries and described the boycott decisions as arbitrary measures taken by the four countries to block the State of Qatar as alleged. The head of the delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia objected to the Qatari statement, which did not comply with the reasons for convening the extraordinary session under Article 54 (N), which was devoted to technical matters only. The head of the Kingdom delegation noted his rejection of the Qatari statement, which was full of inaccuracies and contrary to reality on behalf of the four countries. Subsequently, the delegations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Arab Republic of Egypt presented a joint working paper, which included actions taken in cooperation with the ICAO Regional Office in Cairo to promote safety over international waters in the Middle East region, which included opening of nine additional air routes to relieve the pressure on current routes over international waters. The paper received the approval of the members of the Council, who praised the spirit of cooperation among the countries of the region at the level of technicians in civil aviation. The Secretariat presented a working paper supporting the work paper of the four countries through a technical report that assured the members of the Council of the safety of the air according to the contingency plan which was activated in accordance with Annex 11 of the Chicago Convention. The Council adopted the following resolutions: 1. Request the Secretariat to continue to implement the contingency plan. 2. Encourage States to cooperate to ensure the implementation of technical solutions. 3. Encourage the Secretariat to update the information regularly and submit it to the Council, beginning with the next session of the Council. 4. Acknowledge the spirit of cooperation and to instruct the President of the Council to use his good offices to facilitate outstanding technical issues, if any. 5. Urge all Member States of ICAO to abide by the spirit of the Chicago Convention and to cooperate to ensure the safety, security, efficiency and sustainability of international civil aviation. --SPA 00:00 LOCAL TIME 21:00 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w457352