Tehran: Qatar-held Iranian pilots in ‘poor health’

Shafaq News- Tehran

Three Iranian pilots held by Qatar are in poor physical condition, military official Mohammad Bagherzadeh said on Saturday, calling for their transfer to a hospital on land.

Bagherzadeh, head of the Iranian Armed Forces' Missing Persons Search Committee, told Iranian state media that the pilots were being held offshore in unsuitable conditions.

Qatar's Foreign Ministry has denied holding the pilots, instead saying Qatari forces “acted” after Iranian aircraft violated the country's airspace and failed to respond to attempts at communication. Search-and-rescue teams later recovered the remains of one pilot.

On August 16, Bagherzadeh accused Qatari authorities of delaying an Iranian request to send a fact-finding team to investigate the pilots' fate. Qatar's Foreign Ministry also rejected the allegation and claimed it had invited an Iranian team to review details of its search-and-rescue operation.