Qatar denied on Saturday that it ​was holding Iranian pilots, ‌saying they had violated Qatari airspace earlier ​this year and ​had failed to respond ⁠to attempts to ​contact them.

A Qatari ​foreign ministry spokesperson said on X that search and ​rescue teams ​later found the remains of ‌one ⁠of the pilots and that it had contacted Iran to ​coordinate ​a ⁠handover.

The spokesperson said Tehran had ​yet to respond ​to ⁠an invitation to review details of ⁠its ​operations.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan will group senior ministers, hold ‌joint exercises and deepen defence industry cooperation under a military pact signed between the regional powers last week, Turkey’s defence ministry said on Thursday.

The three Sunni Muslim U.S. allies, alarmed by ​a regional conflagration that has brought Iranian missile fire onto Gulf ​oil exporters, signed the “Mecca Joint Defence Agreement” on August 7. They ⁠said the accord stipulates that an armed attack against any member would be ​regarded as an attack on all, similar to NATO’s Article 5 collective defence clause, Reuters reported.

At a ​weekly briefing in Ankara, the defence ministry said the pact’s fundamental goal was to ensure defence and military ties were put on a “more institutional and sustainable” footing.

“Under the accord, strategic political ​and military mechanisms plan to be established involving the Defence Ministers, Foreign Ministers, ​and Chiefs of General Staff/Armed Forces Commanders, and that coordination among the three countries will ‌be conducted ⁠at the highest level,” it said.

The ministry added that joint military exercises involving land, naval, and air forces, as well as air defence and unmanned systems were planned, in addition to deeper defence industry cooperation.

“The aim is to provide not ​only product and system ​supply, but also ⁠joint development and production, technology cooperation, and sustainable maintenance and logistics support,” it said, adding that unmanned and autonomous systems, ​electronic warfare and artificial intelligence capabilities would be prioritised.

Turkey, which ​has NATO’s ⁠second-largest army, has said the pact with nuclear-armed Pakistan and top oil exporter Saudi Arabia was open to expansion — with Egypt as a potential candidate — and did not ⁠seek ​to replace any existing alliances, read the report.

The ministry also said ​Turkey was participating in meetings in Jeddah aimed at establishing an international coalition to protect Red Sea shipping.

Iran and the United States remain at ​loggerheads over efforts to agree a permanent end to the war in the Gulf, according to a senior Iranian source, who said there ‌had been no progress in talks to revive the interim deal agreed in June and define a time frame to implement it, Reuters reported.

The comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump issued yet another broadside against Iran’s leaders, dealing a further blow to hopes for a resolution to the crisis, following new attacks on shipping in the region on Tuesday.

The deal agreed in June declared an “immediate and permanent ​termination of military operations on all fronts”, but quickly unravelled, with Trump saying it was “over” on July 7 and Iran’s foreign ministry declaring it “suspended” ​a week later.

The U.S. accuses Iran of failing to honor an agreement under the deal to reopen the vital Strait ⁠of Hormuz shipping route. Tehran says Washington has reneged on its commitments, including lifting a blockade of Iranian ports and releasing frozen Iranian assets.

“One of the issues ​that is being discussed via mediators is the U.S. returning to the interim agreement and defining a time frame for implementing the commitments. There has been absolutely no ​progress on this issue,” the Iranian source said.

Trump said on Wednesday that the U.S. has “total control” over the Strait of Hormuz.

But the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, the body Iran set up to manage the waterway, said it remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted.

“Iran is all talk and no action, the Bully of the Middle East No Longer,” ​Trump said on his Truth Social platform.

Throughout the conflict, Trump has alternated between threats of escalation and claims that a peace deal is imminent.

Thousands ​of people have been killed in the conflict, mainly in Iran and Lebanon, since the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on February 28, read the report.

Iran has struck U.S. assets and ‌infrastructure in ⁠countries including Oman, Jordan, Kuwait, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The June interim ceasefire agreement set a 60-day period, extendable by mutual consent, within which Iran and the U.S. were expected to reach a final deal limiting Tehran’s nuclear program and lifting U.S. sanctions.

The Iranian source dismissed a report on Wednesday from Turkey’s Anadolu news agency that quoted Pakistani government sources as saying they had agreed to extend that 60-day period.

“There is no talk of an extension because, from Iran’s perspective, ​there is no period that began and ​therefore nothing to extend. The United ⁠States violated the interim agreement 48 hours after it was reached and withdrew from it a few days later,” the source told Reuters.

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman and the entrance to the Gulf, ​handled a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas flow before the war.

Benchmark Brent crude futures have surged ​since the start of ⁠the war in February, hitting a peak of $126 a barrel, roughly 75% above pre-war levels, with choppy trade reflecting concerns over disruptions to Gulf oil supplies and shifting signals on peace talks.

On Tuesday, in separate incidents, a suspected and a U.S. Navy MH-60 ⁠helicopter fired ​two Hellfire missiles to , the U.S. military said.

Oil ​prices rose but then steadied in volatile trading on Wednesday, after forecasters cut projections for 2026 oil demand. Brent crude futures were trading at around $88 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude at around $83 ​a barrel.