Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagherzadeh said the team made up of highly experienced Iranian Air Force experts has been waiting for months to enter Qatar, but repeated delays and obstacles by Qatari officials have so far prevented the return of the Iranian pilots.
Bagherzadeh urged the Qatari government to facilitate the fact-finding mission instead of denying the issue, and once again stressed the need for the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently follow up on the matter.
He also raised concerns over the fate of four Iranians who were captured by Kuwait, warning that the Kuwaiti government has similarly avoided providing information about their whereabouts.
The dispute over the Iranian pilots dates back to March 2, when Qatar said its air defenses had shot down two Iranian Su-24 bombers near the U.S. Al-Udeid Air Base. The aircraft had reportedly been involved in an Iranian operation targeting the base. For months, the fate of the four crew members remained unclear.
Iran later said that one of the pilots, Brig. Gen. Majid Kazemi, had been confirmed dead through DNA testing, while the fate of the remaining crew members was still being investigated.
Iran says that three pilots have survived and have been held by Qatar since the incident. Qatar has categorically denied detaining any Iranian pilots, saying that search-and-rescue teams recovered the remains of one pilot and that Doha has sought to coordinate their return to Iran.
Neda Sajjadi - seyed mohammad kazemi
