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Iran’s General Staff said Qatar has allowed the Iranian ambassador in Doha to meet three Iranian pilots Tehran says have been held there since March, while calling for an air ambulance to bring them home, Tasnim reported.
Brig. Gen. Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the General Staff’s Missing Persons Search Committee, said Qatari authorities approved the ambassador’s meeting with the pilots, who Iran says were captured on March 2.
He asked the International Committee of the Red Cross to send an air ambulance to Qatar, saying the pilots were in poor physical condition.
“The physical condition of the Iranian pilots in Qatar is not good, and the place where they are being held on the water does not provide suitable conditions,” Baqerzadeh said. He urged Qatar to transfer them to land and to a well-equipped hospital as soon as possible.
Baqerzadeh said Aug. 15 that three of four Iranian pilots from two fighter jets downed during the war with the U.S. and Israel had been captured by Qatar.
He identified the pilots as Javad Salehi, Abdulmajid Dashtian and Imran Behroushian, saying they had been held for about six months and that Qatar had not previously allowed Iran to meet them.
Iranian officials had said the fate of the three remained uncertain and that available information was incomplete.
Iran has said its fighter jets were targeted during retaliatory operations against the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. The body of another pilot, Majid Kazemi, was returned to Iran and buried.
Following Iran’s earlier statement, Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed al-Ansari denied on social media that Qatar was holding the Iranian pilots.
Baqerzadeh also called on Kuwait to respect the rights of Iranian prisoners of war under the four Geneva Conventions and allow them initial contact with their families.
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