In brief
- Iranian World Cup players have been granted visas to play in the United States.
- Iran’s participation in the tournament has been uncertain after the US and Israel launched strikes against the country in February.
The Iranian national soccer team has successfully obtained visas to enter the United States just ten days before their debut match in Los Angeles, despite ongoing tensions between the two nations.
A White House representative confirmed on Friday that the players have been granted entry. However, attempts to reach a spokesperson from Iran’s World Cup federation for further comments were unsuccessful.
According to reports from the semi-official Iranian Fars news agency, some members of Iran’s coaching and administrative team are still waiting for their visas.
“Visas for certain individuals in the national team’s technical and executive staff have not been issued yet, as the US embassy has declined to provide them,” the report noted, without revealing the source of this information.
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The war in the Middle East has turned the World Cup — the biggest global sporting event — into a geopolitical contest, with both sides appearing to use the tournament for political posturing.
It is the first World Cup, since its inception in 1930, in which a host nation is set to receive a country it is at war with.
Iran negotiated a last-minute move of the team’s base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, due to visa issues and a growing sentiment in Iran that the squad’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.
They are scheduled to land in Tijuana early on Sunday local time.
Iran is due to play their first Group G match on 15 June against New Zealand in Los Angeles, where they will also face Belgium before taking on Egypt in Seattle.
The US had never formally said it did not want the Iran team to stay on its territory, Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh Pasandideh, said.
However, US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Tuesday said that the US would not allow Iran to include in its World Cup delegation individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), a powerful branch of the Iranian armed forces.
Mehdi Taj, president of Iran’s soccer federation, was denied entry for the tournament draw in Washington in December. He is a former commander in the IRGC.
Iran’s desire to compete in the World Cup underscored its efforts to reach a resolution in the war with the US, Pasandideh said.
“Iran’s participation in the World Cup — even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy — shows that Iran seeks peace,” Pasandideh said, speaking through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.
Progress in peace talks between Iran and the US has been slow, with both sides seemingly inching toward an interim agreement even as they continue to carry out military strikes.
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