Qatar says it repatriated body of Iranian pilot and denies claims of holding three others

Qatar said on Tuesday that an Iranian delegation travelled to Doha and collected the remains of one of its pilots, as Tehran continued to claim that three who went missing after their aircraft entered Qatari airspace and were shot down in March are still in the country. Qatar disputed that account and said its invitation remained open. Al Ansari's comments came a day after Tehran said it would consider the three missing pilots to be prisoners until Qatar clarified their situation.

Qatar denied holding the pilots in a statement on Saturday, saying it had contacted Iran to coordinate the handover of one pilot’s remains. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that Tehran would pursue the case through bilateral, international and legal channels. The pilots went missing after Iranian military aircraft entered Qatari airspace on 2 March, during the early days of the war that began with the US-Israeli strikes on Iran on 28 February.

Tehran said the aircraft were taking part in an operation targeting the US Al Udeid Air Base when they were shot down by Qatari forces. Al Ansari said the aircraft had entered Qatari airspace and threatened people in the country. Qatar says its search-and-rescue teams looked for the pilots following the 2 March incident and recovered the remains of one of them.

Al Ansari said the search ended on 6 April. Qatar then contacted Iran to return the remains and invited an Iranian team to review the search details. Al Ansari further said Doha would continue seeking a diplomatic solution to the ongoing war but would respond firmly to any future attack on the country.

Al Ansari also said there was no new progress to report in the Iran-Oman talks over reopening the Strait of Hormuz. Qatar was still waiting for the two countries to reach an agreement that could help restore the ceasefire and allow wider US-Iran negotiations to resume, he said. Asked how close the parties were to reviving the wider US-Iran agreement, Al Ansari said, “I think we are far from this right now.” He said an agreement to reopen Hormuz would make it easier for wider negotiations to move forward.