Qatar Denies Holding Iranian Pilots Following Accusations

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman has categorically denied Iran’s accusation of holding prisoner three military pilots whose planes crashed in the early days of the war, calling the claims “completely baseless, false and illogical”.

During a news conference on Tuesday, Majed al-Ansari reiterated that Qatar handed over the remains of one of the pilots after they were found last April to an Iranian delegation.

The comments come after Iranian officials publicly claimed that the pilots were secretly detained after being captured, demanding that Qatar release them.

In a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross, Iranian General Mohammad Bagherzadeh said three pilots – Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian – survived after their warplanes crashed in March and were captured alive, according to Iran’s Fars news agency.

Bagherzadeh said the men have been held for six months, cut off from communication, and called for international humanitarian intervention.

During his weekly press briefing, al-Ansari said the planes were targeted because they “violated Qatar’s sovereignty and the city of Doha, and that they were dealt with according to the law”.

He expressed surprise at the claims raised by Tehran, stressing that Doha had invited the Iranian side to send a technical team to review the search operations, but it did not respond. He said the Iranian request for Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) involvement in the case was a “media ploy”.

Al-Ansari also said Qatar would not hesitate to “defend its people, its territory and its sovereignty if it is attacked”, while emphasising the priority of diplomatic action and dialogue.

The military engagement came during an Iranian attack on the Al Udeid airbase in Qatar, which hosts US Central Command (CENTCOM) personnel. In early March, Qatar’s Ministry of Defence reported shooting down two Sukhoi Su-24 bombers, marking the first time a Gulf country downed Iranian aircraft during the US-Israel war on Iran.

The interception came amid the broader wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Gulf following the outbreak of hostilities on February 28. An April ceasefire temporarily halted major combat, with a June Memorandum of Understanding extending the truce and setting the stage for more talks on ending the war with a negotiated settlement. But the MoU collapsed as Iran targeted ships transiting in the Strait of Hormuz, with both sides blaming the other for violating the agreement.