violation

Aug. 17 (UPI) — Iran has accused Qatar of holding three of its pilots for half a year in violation of international law, heightening tensions between the two nations and threatening to expand the war in the Middle East, despite Doha claiming not to have the pilots.

“Qatar’s government has exhausted its opportunity to delay and toy with the fate of three heroic Iranian pilots,” Maj. Gen. Ali Abdullahi, the newly appointed chief of staff of Iran’s Armed Forces, said in a statement Sunday.

“They must be released immediately and unconditionally and returned to the homeland.”

Four Iranian pilots in two SU-24s were shot down over Qatari airspace March 2, as Iran was attacking Al Udeid Air Base in response to joint Israeli-U.S. attacks on Iran days earlier that ignited the ongoing war. A Qatari foreign ministry spokesperson said that a search had been launched for their crews, but it was never stated that they had been found. Iran later announced that one of the four pilots had died in the attack.

On Saturday, Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagherzadeh, head of the Iranian military’s committee for missing personnel, identified the remaining three pilots in a letter to the International Red Cross that accuses Qatar of violating articles of the Geneva Convention concerning the treatment of prisoners of war, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Bagherzadeh accused Doha of denying the pilots contact with their families and Iranian authorities, citing Articles 70 and 78 of the Third Geneva Convention that states POWs have the right to submit complaints and requests to representatives who visit their place of captivity or to hold discussions and negotiations.

The letter urged the ICRC to address the situation.

“Qatar must know that Iran will not retreat from its proud pilot sons. The path for the presence of the expert team of the Islamic Republic of Iran must be facilitated as soon as possible,” Brig. Gen. Seyed Majid Mousavi, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, said Sunday in a statement.

“Continuing this trend will not be cost-free for Qatar, and any delay or obstruction will place a heavy responsibility on their shoulders.”

Qatar has denied the accusations. Majed Al Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Qatar was not holding any Iranian pilots and had handed over the remains of one Iranian pilot that its search teams had found.

Qatar invited Iranian officials in April to visit Qatar and be briefed on the search-and-rescue operations, “but the Iranian side has yet to respond to the invitation,” he said in a statement Sunday.

June 14 (UPI) — The Israeli military launched an attack on Hezbollah targets in Beirut on Sunday, accusing the group of violating a cease-fire agreement earlier in the day and throwing an Iranian peace deal into question.

The Israeli strikes hit the southern suburbs of Beirut, specifically in Dahiyeh, a neighborhood where Hezbollah holds sway, The New York Times reported.

Lebanon‘s state-run news agency, NNA, reported that two people died and four others sustained injuries in the attack. A strike hit a residential building, the agency said, as reported by NBC News.

Lebanese security sources told NBC News that Israel fired two missiles in a targeted strike. Israel said it hit a Hezbollah command center used to “advance terrorist attacks against the citizens of the state of Israel and [Israel Defense Force] soldiers operating in southern Lebanon.”

Hours before the strike, the Israeli military accused Hezbollah of violating a cease-fire by firing toward Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement confirming they ordered the strike.

“Israel will not tolerate fire into its territory,” they said.

Sunday’s violence between Israel and Lebanon could complicate U.S. and Iranian negotiations for a peace deal. The United States and Pakistan — which has acted as a mediator — said Saturday the agreement was ready to be signed Sunday in an additional round of talks, but Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said there were no plans for Iran’s negotiators to be involved in any talks for the next few days.

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s speaker of parliament and chief negotiator with the United States, accused Washington of “giving the green light” to Israel for its attack on Dahiyeh.

“The game of bad cop and good cop is outdated,” he said in a post on X.

“If you lack the will and ability to fulfill your commitments, speaking of continuing the path is not possible.”

President Donald Trump was apparently incensed about Sunday’s attack and issued a rare rebuke against Netanyahu — saying he has “no [expletive] judgment” — in comments to Axios.

Trump called on Israel and Hezbollah to stand down in a post on Truth Social.

“This morning’s attack on Beirut should not have happened, particularly on a special day when we are so close to a Peace Deal with Iran,” he wrote. “Israel has the right to defend itself against threats, but the attack it was responding to was very small and meaningless, nobody was hurt, injured, or killed, and should not disrupt this important process.

“This could be the beginning of a long and beautiful peace — Let’s not blow it!”

At least 14 people were killed and several others wounded in Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon on Sunday amid continued violations of an ongoing ceasefire, Anadolu reports.

The Lebanese Health Ministry said 11 people were killed and nine others injured in an Israeli strike on the town of Seir al-Gharbiyeh in Nabatieh province in southern Lebanon.

A fighter jet struck the town of Bazouriyeh in the Tyre district, killing one person and injuring two others, the state news agency NNA reported.

An Israeli drone strike also killed a young man in the town of Arabsalim in Nabatieh district, the outlet said.

A house was also hit in an Israeli strike in the town of Toura in Tyre, killing a woman and injuring two people.​​​​​​​

The Israeli attacks came despite a US-mediated ceasefire that is supposed to remain in effect until early July.

More than 3,100 people have been killed, over 9,500 injured, and 1.6 million displaced by Israeli bombardment in Lebanon since March 2 amid cross-border attacks with Hezbollah, according to Lebanese officials.

READ: Israel pounds Gaza, Lebanon in daily breaches of ceasefires