Newsletters
Qatar's foreign ministry on Saturday flatly denied holding three Iranian pilots in custody, pushing back against a demand from a senior Iranian general that Doha release the aviators, whose aircraft were shot down in the early days of the wider Middle East war.
Foreign ministry spokesman Majed Al Ansari said Qatar was "surprised" by the allegations, calling them misleading and noting they emerged at a sensitive moment amid ongoing diplomatic efforts to ease regional tensions. "We categorically deny the claims circulating regarding the detention of Iranian pilots," Al Ansari said in a statement posted on X.
According to the Qatari statement, contact was made with the pilots after their aircraft violated Qatari airspace and after officials confirmed the trajectory the aircraft had been targeting.
Qatar said its forces followed the rules of engagement and attempted to communicate with the pilots before receiving no response, at which point what it described as "necessary measures" were taken to defend Qatari territory in accordance with international law. The ministry said this sequence of events had already been clarified through official channels at the time.
The pilots were flying Su-24 fighter jets that Qatar's air force shot down in March, according to earlier statements from Qatar's Defence Ministry, during a period of Iranian strikes on countries hosting U.S. military installations following American and Israeli attacks on Iran.
Qatar said its search and rescue teams, which it described as possessing "world-class expertise and capabilities," carried out a full search for the pilots' remains following the incident.
The ministry said Qatar subsequently coordinated with Iranian authorities to hand over the remains of one of the pilots who was found, in line with relevant provisions of international humanitarian law.
Qatar added that it had invited an Iranian delegation in April to visit the country and be briefed on the details of the search and rescue operation, but said Iran had not yet responded to that invitation.
The Qatari denial came after Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagherzadeh, who heads the missing-persons committee within Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, said in a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross that three pilots, identified as Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian, had been held by Qatari forces for roughly six months.
Bagherzadeh's letter alleged the men had not been permitted to contact their families or Iranian officials, and called for their release.
Iranian state media had earlier reported that a fourth pilot involved in the mission was killed while "targeting an enemy military base" in Qatar. Until Saturday's disclosure, Tehran had said it had no information on the pilots' fate, and Iranian officials said this marked the first instance in the conflict in which Iran has accused a regional country of holding its fighters.
Qatar's rebuttal did not directly address Iran's letter to the Red Cross or the specific allegation that the pilots remain in Qatari custody, focusing instead on disputing that any detention took place at all.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
1 min read
1 min read
