Qatar has denied claims that it is detaining Iranian military pilots who went missing after an incident earlier this year, saying search and rescue teams recovered the remains of one of them.
A Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the pilots had violated Qatari airspace and failed to respond to attempts by authorities to contact them. The spokesperson added that Qatar later conducted search operations and found the remains of one pilot.
The development follows claims from Iranian authorities that three pilots were captured after their aircraft were brought down in March. Qatar has rejected the allegation and said it contacted Iran to coordinate the handover of the recovered remains.
The Qatari spokesperson also said Tehran had not responded to an invitation to review details surrounding the incident and the country’s search and rescue operations.
The conflicting accounts come amid continuing tensions in the region, with the fate of the missing Iranian pilots becoming a point of dispute between Tehran and Doha.
