World | By Sadaf Sundas Riaz I News Desk
TEHRAN — Iran has called on Qatar to release three Iranian military pilots it says were captured after their Su-24 fighter jets were shot down during the opening phase of the Middle East war, opening a new diplomatic dispute between Tehran and a Gulf state already caught in the wider regional confrontation.
General Mohammad Bagherzadeh, head of the Missing Persons Search Committee of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, said the pilots were captured alive after two Iranian Su-24 aircraft went down during a combat mission against a military base in Qatar on March 2.
Iran identified the three pilots as Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian and Omran Behrouzian and said they had been held for about six months without contact with their families.
Iran Appeals to Red Cross
Bagherzadeh disclosed the case in a letter to International Committee of the Red Cross President Mirjana Spoljaric Egger, asking the organization to intervene to secure the pilots’ release.
Iran says four pilots were aboard the two aircraft. One, Majid Kazemi, was killed, while Tehran maintains that the other three survived and were taken into Qatari custody.
The aircraft had been participating in Iranian operations against what Tehran described as an enemy military base in Qatar during the early stages of the conflict involving Iran, the United States and Israel.
Qatar Flatly Denies Holding the Pilots
But Qatar has now categorically rejected Iran’s claim.
Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said the Iranian aircraft had violated Qatari airspace and failed to respond to attempts to contact them. Doha said subsequent search-and-rescue operations recovered the remains of one pilot but denied that three surviving Iranian airmen were in Qatari custody.
That leaves Tehran and Doha offering fundamentally different accounts of what happened after the aircraft were brought down.
The dispute is significant because Qatar has sought to navigate carefully through the regional war while also hosting Al Udeid Air Base, a crucial hub for US military operations in the Middle East.
A New Gulf Dispute for Tehran
Iran’s public demand introduces another complication into already strained relations between Tehran and several Gulf governments.
Unlike the confrontation with Israel or the United States, the dispute directly involves alleged Iranian military personnel and a neighboring Arab state.
It also raises questions about the circumstances surrounding the March mission and what happened to the crews after their aircraft went down.
With Qatar denying the men are in its custody, the involvement of the ICRC could become important in determining their fate.
Why It Matters
The disagreement illustrates how the Middle East war continues to generate diplomatic consequences long after individual military operations have ended.
If Iran can substantiate its claim that three pilots are being detained, Tehran is likely to increase diplomatic pressure for their release.
If Qatar’s account is correct, however, Iran will face questions over the evidence behind its assertion that the men survived and were captured.
For now, the two governments are publicly contradicting each other over the fate of three servicemen — turning a March aerial confrontation into a fresh Iran-Qatar diplomatic dispute six months later.