Dr. Theodor Meron, Israel’s Ambassador to Canada, said yesterday that the General Council of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) has agreed to include some Israeli proposals for air security measures in a letter being sent to all ICAO member states on air safety.
Meron, who headed the Israeli delegation to the Council meeting which ended Monday night, made the proposals in the wake of the recent attacks against El Al planes at Orly Airport in Paris and other acts of air terror. But, he told a news conference, that the ICAO Council failed to act on Israeli proposals to assure the prosecution of offenders.
Meron said while the ICAO has made progress on technical measures, Israel hoped it would take a more active role in pressing for the implementation by member states, including the Arab states, of The Hague and Montreal conventions on hijacking and sabotaging of aircraft.
WILL EXAMINE SPECIFIC PROPOSALS
The ICAO Council urged member states to review the “effectiveness of existing measures, particularly in relation to any new manifestation of the threat to civil aviation.” It called upon authorities responsible for aviation security to “exercise necessary vigilance in order to prevent acts of unlawful interference with civil aviation.”
The Council also requested its committee on unlawful interference to examine and report on a number of other Israeli proposals including: establishment of security guards and patrols on perimeters of international airports so as to prevent firing of long-range weapons; adoption of new procedures aimed at preventing unauthorized access of persons and vehicles to vulnerable areas; and control access to spectator terraces.
Another proposal sent for examination by the committee included the establishment by ICAO of security training programs for member states and improvement in reporting procedures on acts of unlawful interference.
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