DUBAI, Aug 16 (Reuters) – An Iranian military official said on Sunday that Qatar should allow an Iranian team to enter the country to investigate the fate of pilots whom Tehran says were captured by Qatari forces, Iranian media reported.
Qatar denies holding any Iranian pilots. Doha said on Saturday that its search and rescue teams had found the remains of one pilot after Iranian aircraft violated Qatari airspace in March and failed to respond to attempts to contact them.
Qatar said it had contacted Iran to coordinate the handover of the remains and had invited Tehran to review details of its search and rescue operations, but had received no response.
Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the Committee for the Search for Missing Persons of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff, said an Iranian Air Force expert and fact-finding team had been waiting for months to enter Qatar, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency.
Baqerzadeh accused Qatari officials of repeatedly delaying the investigation and preventing the pilots’ return to Iran. He called for the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently follow up on the case.
Baqerzadeh also said Kuwait was similarly withholding information about the fate of four Iranians held in Kuwait.
In May, Iran said the four were affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards and had been on a maritime patrol before entering Kuwaiti territorial waters because of a navigation disruption. Kuwait has said the four were suspected of planning hostile actions against the country.
(Reporting by Dubai Newsroom; Editing by William Mallard, Kirsten Donovan)
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