?Accused The Emirate Of Trying To 'Buy' The Agency

The Emirate of Qatar last month reportedly presented the ICAO with an unsolicited offer to move the agency's headquarters from Montreal to a new permanent home in Doha, which has Canadian officials somewhat miffed. And Canada's politicians are uniting to do everything they can to prevent the move.

Qatar offered to build a new headquarters building for the ICAO, with the move taking place in 2016. They also offered to pay for the moving expenses, as well as any termination expenses resulting from Canadians who might not want to move to Qatar losing their jobs. The Emirate did not consult the Canadian Foreign Minister before presenting the offer to the ICAO, according to a report from the India Times.

The Canadian broadcaster CTV News reports that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that in his view, Qatar has not made a strong case for moving the agency to Doha. The ICAO is the only U.N. entity headquartered in Canada. "There is absolutely no reasonable case to move the center out of Montreal," he said.

There is reportedly some political motivation behind the offer. The Qatari government is said to be critical of Canada's pro-Israel position. But Canada and some Arab states have had differences on other aviation issues as well, including requests for more landing slots for Qatari and UAE airlines in Canada that have been blocked by Canadian airlines.

The U.S. Ambassador to Canada said that the United States sees no reason to move the ICAO headquarters from Montreal to Doha. A vote will be held in September. The proposal to move the headquarters would require the approval of 60 percent of the ICAO's 191 member states.

FMI: www.icao.int