🔶 Qatar denies holding three Iranian fighter pilots on its soil

Qatar denied reports published that this country has kept Iranian pilots in detention. Qatar’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on the X social media network that these pilots, in March, “had violated Qatar’s airspace and had not responded to attempts to establish contact with them.”

According to the Qatar Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “search and rescue teams later found remains of one of the pilots’ bodies, and Qatar has contacted Iran to coordinate its handover.”

The spokesperson of Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that the Islamic Republic has not yet responded to the invitation to examine the details of Qatar’s operation.

Previously, Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the Missing Persons Search Committee of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic, had claimed that three Iranian fighter pilots whose aircraft had crashed during fighting in the beginning of this year were taken into captivity in Qatar.

Baqerzadeh, in a letter to Mirjana Spoluarić, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross, asked for follow-up on their situation and for the provision of conditions for their rapid release.