Iran says to use all capacities to clarify situation of three pilots assumed to be jailed in Qatar

Tehran, Aug 17 (IANS) Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday the country will use all its bilateral, multilateral and legal capacities to clarify the situation of three Iranian pilots believed to have been held captive by Qatar since March.

During a weekly press conference in Tehran, he noted that clarifying the pilots’ situation is Iran’s “serious demand” to Qatar, stressing that the Iranian Foreign Ministry has been following up on the pilots’ fate since being informed of the issue, Xinhua News Agency reported.

Baghaei said that in mid-March, the ministry sent its first correspondence to the International Committee of the Red Cross on the issue and began following up through the Iranian embassy in Doha and the Qatari embassy in Tehran, adding, “We have highlighted the issue in every meeting (with the Qatari side).”

He underlined that Iran’s follow-ups on the issue are not in conflict with its relations with Qatar, noting that “while we have regular exchanges (with Qatar) and the Qataris play a role in discussions pertaining to the (diplomatic) process that has started between Iran and the United States, we must also express our concerns and considerations.”

Two Iranian Su-24 fighter jets, with four pilots onboard, were hit by the “enemy’s” air defence while returning from a military mission on March 2, with three pilots captured by Qatar and the fourth killed, Commander of the Missing Persons Search Committee of the General Staff of Iran’s Armed Forces Mohammad Bagherzadeh said on Saturday.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari denied the claim in a social media post on the same day.

An Iranian military commander on Sunday called on the Qatari government to allow a fact-finding team from their Air Force to visit it, 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.

–IANS

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