Iran says it still considers missing pilots to be prisoners in Qatar

Iran’s foreign ministry says it will consider three missing pilots to be prisoners in Qatar, despite Doha’s denials, until it clarifies their fate.

Tehran has said the Iranians went missing while carrying out an operation against the United States’s Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar on March 2, shortly after the outbreak of the Middle East war.

On Saturday, Iranian authorities alleged for the first time that the pilots had been captured in Qatar, after previously saying one pilot had been killed and three others were missing following their sortie.

“It is imperative to obtain clarification on their situation,” foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei tells a weekly press briefing. “Until the pilots’ situation is clarified, we consider them prisoners and will spare no effort to shed light on their fate.”

Qatar denies holding the pilots and said an invitation had been sent to Iran “to be briefed on the details of the search and rescue operations in April, but the Iranian side has yet to respond.”