Mohammad Bagherzadeh, commander of the Missing Persons Search Committee of the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, asked Qatar to allow an expert team from the Iranian Air Force to enter the country to investigate the situation of three Iranian pilots in Qatar.
Bagherzadeh criticized Qatari officials for rejecting statements by the General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces that the pilots had been taken captive. The Iranian commander claimed that the team had been waiting for months to enter Qatar and conduct an on-site investigation but had not been granted permission.
Iran calls on Qatar and the Red Cross
The Iranian official asked the Qatari government to allow the investigative team to enter the country instead of denying the statement. Bagherzadeh also called on the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently follow up on the matter.
Bagherzadeh also said they had been unable to obtain information from Kuwaiti authorities about the fate of four Iranian citizens whom he claimed had been taken captive in Kuwait.
Conflicting statements on the pilots’ fate
The General Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces had announced that Qatar had taken captive three of four Iranian pilots from two fighter jets that crashed during the war with the United States and Israel. Majid al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, rejected Iran’s statement and said the claim was surprising and misleading at a time when diplomatic efforts to ease tensions in the region were continuing.
Iran had previously announced that its fighter jets had been targeted during attacks on the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Iranian authorities said that pilot Majid Kazemi, who was killed, had been buried after his remains were returned to Iran, while the fate of the three other pilots remained unclear.
