TEHRAN, Aug. 16 — An Iranian military commander on Sunday called on the Qatari government to allow a fact-finding team from the Air Force of Iran’s Army to visit Qatar, instead of denying that it had captured three Iranian pilots in March.
Commander of the Missing Persons Search Committee of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Mohammad Bagherzadeh made the remarks in a statement published on the committee’s website after Qatar on Saturday denied his claim that it had detained the Iranian pilots.
Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari issued the denial in a social media post after Bagherzadeh said earlier in the day that the Arab state’s forces had captured three Iranian pilots whose fighter jets had been shot down when returning from a military mission against a U.S. base in Qatar in March.
In reaction to Al Ansari’s denial, the Iranian commander said a team comprising experts of the Iranian Army’s Air Force has been waiting for several months to be allowed entry into Qatar to conduct field investigations, but due to the Qatari authorities’ “continuous obstructionism and procrastination,” the ground has not been prepared yet for the Iranian pilots’ return to their home country.
He called on the Qatari government to, “instead of denying the issue and placing restrictions on the fact-finding path,” allow the Iranian team to enter Qatar.
In a letter published on Saturday, Bagherzadeh said that Qatari forces captured three Iranian pilots whose fighter jets were shot down when returning from a military mission against a U.S. base in Qatar in March. The commander said a fourth pilot was killed.
On Feb. 28, Israel and the United States launched joint attacks on Tehran and other Iranian cities, killing the country’s then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, military commanders and civilians.
Iran responded with waves of missile and drone attacks targeting Israel and U.S. bases and assets in the region. The body of the killed Iranian pilot, Majid Kazemi, was returned to Iran and buried in the southern city of Shiraz in late July.
