Qatar's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, on Tuesday (March 14) rejected Iran's allegations that Doha is detaining three Iranian military pilots after their aircraft crashed early in the conflict. He called the accusations "completely baseless, false, and illogical."
Speaking at a regular press briefing, al-Ansari reiterated that Qatar had returned the remains of one of the pilots to an Iranian delegation after they were found in April last year.
Earlier, Iranian officials publicly accused Qatar of secretly holding the pilots after their capture and demanded their release. In a letter to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Iranian General Mohammad Bagherzadeh said the three pilots — Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian, and Omran Behraveshian — survived the crash of their fighter jets in March and were taken prisoner, according to Iran's Fars news agency. Bagherzadeh said the men had been detained for six months, cut off from communication, and called for international humanitarian intervention.
In response, al-Ansari said the aircraft had been shot down because they "violated the sovereignty of Qatar and the city of Doha, and they were dealt with according to the law." He expressed surprise at Tehran's allegations, emphasizing that Doha had invited Iran to send a technical team to review the search operations, but Iran did not respond. He also called Iran's suggestion that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) be involved in the matter a "media stunt."
Al-Ansari also affirmed that Qatar would not hesitate to "protect its people, territory, and sovereignty if attacked," while stressing the priority of diplomatic action and dialogue.
The incident comes amid Iran's attack on the Al Udeid air base in Qatar, which hosts personnel from the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM). In early March, Qatar's Ministry of Defense announced it had shot down two Iranian Su-24 bomber jets, marking the first time a Gulf state downed Iranian aircraft during the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.
The interception occurred amid a wave of Iranian retaliatory strikes across the Gulf following the outbreak of hostilities on February 28. An April ceasefire temporarily halted major military operations, with a memorandum of understanding in June extending the ceasefire and setting the stage for further talks aimed at ending the war through a negotiated settlement. However, the memorandum collapsed when Iran targeted ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz, and both sides blamed each other for violating the agreement.
