Qatar denies holding Iranian pilots​​

Qatar denied on Saturday that it was holding Iranian pilots captive after Tehran accused Doha of capturing three of its personnel during the war.

A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said on X that they had violated Qatari airspace in March and had failed to respond to attempts to contact them. Search and rescue teams later found the remains of one of the pilots and that it had contacted Iran to coordinate a handover, they wrote.

The spokesperson said Tehran had yet to respond to an invitation to review details of its operations.

An Iranian military official on Sunday accused Qatari officials of repeatedly delaying the investigation and preventing the pilots' return to Iran.

Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the Committee for the Search for Missing Persons of Iran's Armed Forces General Staff, said an Iranian Air Force expert and fact-finding team had been waiting for months to enter Qatar, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

"Due to persistent delays by Qatari authorities, the return of our brave pilots to their homeland remains impossible," he was quoted as saying.

Baqerzadeh also said Kuwait was similarly withholding information about the fate of four Iranians held in Kuwait. In May, Iran said the four were affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards and had been on a maritime patrol before entering Kuwaiti territorial waters because of a navigation disruption. Kuwait has said the four were suspected of planning hostile actions against the country.

Iran's army said last month it had retrieved the body of pilot Majid Kazemi, who was killed during an attack on Qatar's Al Udeid Air Base in early March.

Iranian authorities previously declared the other pilots missing but did not allege they had been captured in Qatar.

Al Udeid is the largest US military base in the Middle East and has been used by US Central Command (CENTCOM) in the six-month war against Iran.

The US and Israel launched the war on 28 February, which triggered retaliatory Iranian attacks across the region.

Diplomatic efforts led to an April ceasefire that ended nearly 40 days of fighting, followed by the signing of a framework for peace talks in June that later collapsed.

The two countries have since traded fire sporadically, with fighting mainly centred in southern Iran and around the Strait of Hormuz.

Qatar, which took part in mediation efforts to end the fighting, came under fire after the truce broke down, reporting attacks on its territory and at least one Qatari tanker transiting the strait.

(Agencies and TNA staff)