Iranian soccer players have been issued visas to play World Cup matches in the US, an official said
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Iran’s World Cup soccer players have been granted visas to enter the United States, a White House official told Reuters on Friday, 10 days before their first game in Los Angeles amid tensions between the two countries.
Iran’s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said on Thursday that the group had not received their US visas but that they had been issued overnight, a White House official said.
A spokesman for Iran’s World Cup federation could not be reached for comment.
The US has not yet issued visas to some members of Iran’s technical and administrative staff, the official Fars news agency said on Friday.
“The visas of some members of the national delegation of technical staff and management have not been issued, and the US embassy has so far refused to issue them,” it said, without disclosing the source.
The battles are intensifying
The war in Iran has turned the World Cup – the world’s biggest sporting event – into a national competition, with both sides seemingly using the competition to stage politics.
Speaking to delegates at a pre-World Cup meeting in Vancouver, FIFA President Gianni Infantino says Iran will play in this summer’s tournament. The assertion comes amid security concerns and after the president of the Iranian Football Federation Mehdi Taj – who is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard – was granted travel documents to Canada but was eventually turned away at the border.
Tehran negotiated at the last minute the group’s base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico, because of visa problems and a growing feeling in Iran that the group’s presence in the United States should be kept to a minimum.
The delegation is scheduled to arrive in Tijuana on Sunday morning.
Iran will play its first Group G match on June 15 against New Zealand in Los Angeles, where it will face Belgium before facing Egypt in Seattle.
The US has never formally stated that it does not want the Iranian group to remain on its territory, Pasandideh said.
However, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the US will not allow Iran to include in its World Cup team people linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, a powerful branch of the Iranian military.
Mehdi Taj, president of Iran’s soccer federation, was denied entry to the tournament in Washington in December. He is a former commander in the Revolutionary Guards.
Iran’s desire to participate in the World Cup has emphasized its efforts to reach a solution to the war with Washington, said Pasandideh.
“Iran’s participation in the World Cup — even in a world that is considered its enemy — shows that Iran wants peace,” said Pasandideh, speaking through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City.
