The dispute, Aug. 17 -- Three Iranian military pilots have not spoken to their families in six months. Their government says they are alive, held in Qatar. Doha says that is simply not true.

Qatar is simultaneously the country Iran accuses of holding its pilots and the principal channel for indirect negotiations between Tehran and Washington on any future ceasefire framework.

General Mohammad Bagherzadeh, who heads the committee, named the three missing pilots as Javad Salehi, Abdolmajid Dashtian, and Omran Behraveshian. All three, he said, were "captured alive" after their Su-24 warplanes were shot down on March 2 over Qatari airspace. A fourth member of the two-plane mission, Majid Kazemi, was killed in the incident; his remains were ...