Iranian parliament backs down from approving bill to ban competition with Israeli athletes

At the request of the Ministry of Sports and Youth, an article from the anti-Israeli bill on the agenda of the Islamic Consultative Assembly that prohibited any competition with athletes was removed.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Islamic Consultative Assembly is seeking to approve a controversial 14-article bill, one of which would have banned any sporting competition with Israeli opponents, but has now been removed from the bill at the request of the Ministry of Sports and Youth. The approval of this bill, along with the aforementioned article, could have had major international consequences for Iran.

Previously, officials of the Islamic Republic regime, while denying any intentionality of the athletes' losses and injuries to avoid facing Israeli athletes, had also claimed in domestic media that Iranian athletes were voluntarily and willingly avoiding competing with Israeli competitors.

Despite this secrecy, cases such as Saeed Mollaei's forced defeat to avoid facing an Israeli athlete and his revelations in this regard have led to Iran being banned from participating in all world judo competitions.

This action was supported by the US State Department, and Morgan Ortagus tweeted: "Attending sporting events should not be accompanied by fear of retaliation from cowardly mobs."

Source: Voice of America