Tehran turns to Qatar in search for missing Iranian pilots

Iran has sent a delegation from the General Staff of its Armed Forces to Qatar to seek information about three military pilots whose fate remains unknown, Iranian officials said.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the three pilots were believed by Tehran to have been captured in March, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

He said determining their whereabouts remained a priority for Iranian diplomacy.

“The fate of three brave pilots of our country is constantly on the agenda,” Baghaei said.

A technical team from Iran’s General Staff travelled to Qatar in recent days to carry out checks and gather further information, he added.

Three Iranian military pilots were killed in a US attack carried out in early September.

Iranian media identified the dead as Iranian Navy pilots Mojtaba Bagheri and Hamed Okati, and Air Force pilot Hossein Mahdavian.

There are no further details about the attack, including where it took place, which aircraft were involved or the circumstances of the pilots’ deaths.

By Aghakazim Guliyev