TEHRAN Saudi Arabia has accused Iraq of holding a Saudi pilot missing since his plane was shot down during the 1991 Persian Gulf War, a newspaper reported on Friday.
The Saudi-owned, Pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat said the renewed charges coincided with the start of a rare Saudi-Iraqi meeting arranged by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to organize a joint search in an area where the body of the missing pilot may be buried.
Al-Hayat said a leading member of the Saudi delegation to the meeting, which began in the Saudi border town of Ar'ar on Thursday, said that witnesses had reported seeing the pilot, Mohammed Nazerah, in an Iraqi jail.
The official also told the Saudi daily Okaz that there was photographic evidence the pilot was still alive.
In Baghdad, an Iraqi spokesman rejected the charges as "groundless", state radio reported as reported by Reuters.
Saudi Arabia had earlier offered to send experts and equipment to help clear a minefield, some 15-20km (9-12 miles) from the Saudi border, where some reports say the missing pilot was buried after his plane was shot down during the Persian Gulf War.
The ICRC has urged Baghdad and Riyadh to set aside political differences to search for the body.
Hundreds of people were reported missing after a U.S.-led multinational force ended Iraq's seven-month occupation of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia was one of the bases for the international force and some of its pilots took part in the bombing of Iraq.