00:05Qatar has again rejected Iran's claim that it is secretly holding three Iranian pilots
00:10whose aircraft were shot down in March.
00:12Speaking here in Doha, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Dr. Majid Al Ansari called the accusations
00:17both false and illogical, saying the pilots entered Qatari airspace on a military mission.
00:23Iran says the three pilots were captured alive after the aircraft were down during an operation
00:28targeting the U.S. Aloudaid airbase.
00:31Qatar says the aircraft had violated its airspace and were targeting Doha.
00:35When we stopped, from the first day it was clear that these planes did not come to Qatar
00:39in half.
00:39These planes came to Qatar to take advantage of our citizens and the citizens in Qatar.
00:46And after that, we decided to take advantage of the Qatar's actions and take advantage of
00:51the Doha city immediately.
00:53Dr. Al Ansari says Qatari forces tried to contact the pilots but got no response.
00:58Search teams later recovered the remains of one pilot, which an Iranian delegation came
01:03to Doha to collect.
01:05Qatar also invited an Iranian technical team to review the search operation, but says Tehran
01:10has yet to respond.
01:11The briefing also turned to efforts to end the wider conflict.
01:15Dr. Al Ansari says U.S.-Iran talks are still far from resuming, with Qatar waiting for Iran
01:21and Oman to reach an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz.
01:24The trajectory of events we would like to see in Qatar is an agreement on the opening of
01:29the Strait of Hormuz, which would coincide with the resumption of the ceasefire and the
01:33resumption of the talks.
01:35Are these parallel lines, you know, converging or diverging?
01:42I know it's not very systematic on our end, but what I would say is that the agreement
01:50over the Strait of Hormuz would make it much easier for us to resume the talks between the
01:54United States and Iran.
01:56For now, Qatar says the focus remains on de-escalation, reopening the Strait and ultimately getting both
02:03sides back to the negotiating table.
02:05Adel Halim, Euronews, Doha.
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