Qatar rejects Iranian claim of detaining downed pilots

Doha: Qatar has categorically denied claims that it is detaining Iranian pilots, calling the allegations misleading and poorly timed amid fragile diplomatic efforts to de-escalate regional tensions.

Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al Ansari said on social media platform X that Doha “categorically denies” the reports and expressed surprise at their release at this juncture. He stated that Qatari forces established contact with the pilots after they violated Qatari airspace, confirmed their targeting trajectory, and took necessary defensive measures in accordance with international law after attempts to communicate drew no response. Al Ansari added that search-and-rescue teams later located the remains of one pilot and that Qatar had coordinated with Iran to hand over the body, noting that Doha had invited an Iranian team in April to review the operations but received no reply from Tehran.

The denial follows an assertion by an Iranian military commander that Qatari forces captured three Iranian pilots whose fighter jets were shot down in March while returning from a mission against a US base in Qatar, and that a fourth pilot was killed. General Mohammad Bagherzadeh of Iran’s armed forces, in a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross, named the three pilots—Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behraveshian—and said they had been held incommunicado for about six months without access to families or diplomats, urging humanitarian intervention.

The dispute unfolds against the backdrop of the February 28, 2026 joint US–Israeli strikes on Tehran and other Iranian cities that killed then–Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, senior military commanders and civilians, triggering waves of Iranian missile and drone attacks on Israel and US assets in the region. The body of slain Iranian pilot Majid Kazemi was returned to Iran and buried in Shiraz in late July, according to reports.

(Inputs from IANS)