Iran urges Qatar to clarify status of three captured fighter pilots

🔊 Iran urges Qatar to clarify status of three captured fighter pilots 📌 Tehran, IRNA – Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baqaei has reiterated Iran’s demand for Qatar to clarify the status of three fighter pilots, saying the Islamic Republic will pursue their fate leveraging all bilateral, multilateral and legal mechanisms. In his weekly press briefing on Monday, Baqaei addressed a number of domestic, regional and international developments, including the three Iranian pilots—who went missing during an operation in response to US-Israeli attacks on the country—were captured alive by Qatari forces based on credible information. ​ Commemorating the anniversary of the return of Iranian Prisoners of War (POWs) to the country, which is marked on August 17 every year, Baqaei honored all those who went through the ordeal in captivity, and said Iran would continue pursuing the case of the pilots. ​ He also mentioned the correspondence made by the Foreign Ministry with the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as the Iranian and Qatari embassies in their respective country, on the fate of the missing pilots, from the very first days of the war. As long as their status is not clarified, it will be assumed that they have been taken prisoner, he said. ​ Referring to wars imposed on the country in the 1980s by the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and recently by the US and the Israeli regime, he said all these aggressions showed the enemies' miscalculations regarding the will of the Iranian nation, and the steadfastness of the Iranian Armed Forces. ​ He also pointed to the US-orchestrated 1953 coup d'état in Iran, saying the foreign intervention in the country's internal affairs was a costly experience, in which America's interventionist logic led to the elimination of a legal government, and its effects continued to be felt in Iran's foreign relations for years. ​ We witnessed the same miscalculation in the last two wars, Baqaei continued, specifying that the enemies were in the illusion that they could determine the fate of the Iranian nation and subdue their will through pressure, threats, intervention and intimidation, but in vain. ​ He hoped that historical experiences of perseverance and resistance against foreign interventions, wars, sanctions, and pressures would help the nation not only to defend its sovereignty, dignity, and independence, but also to move towards a bright and progressive future. 📲 ​