Iran: Govt rewards athletes for not competing with Israelis at Tokyo Games

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Athletes who refused to compete with Israelis counterparts during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were rewarded during a ceremony in Tehran on Saturday.

The event was attended by Olympic and Paralympic athletes, the heads of various sports organisations, as well as the deputy head of the Basij paramilitary organisation.

Major General Seyed Ghasem Ghoreishi, Deputy Head of Basij, accused Israel of wanting to ‘legitimise its existence’ and ‘distract people from the crimes it commits’ by participating in sports tournaments.

“Many are trying to, please forgive me [for saying this], take away our honour and leave us with humiliation,” said Youth and Sports minister Hamid Sajjadi.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei urged Iranian athletes not to compete with Israelis during the 2020 Olympics, leading several competitors to forego matches.

Iranian sportspeople who have followed the government’s long-standing orders to avoid competing with Israelis have been disciplined by several sporting bodies over the practice.

The award ceremony was criticised by members of human rights organisation ‘United for Navid,’ who called for the International Olympic Committee to levy sanctions on the country.

SOUNDBITES:

SOT, Gholamreza Ghoreishi, Deputy Head of Basij organisation (Farsi): “Our sports heroes are among the manliest and bravest young people in the world. Therefore, since the Zionist regime wants to legitimise its existence by participating in various arenas, and on the other hand, to distract the people from the crimes it commits, our heroes themselves refuse to compete with these people who want to legitimise the Zionist regime to, in fact, defend the oppressed Palestinians in some way.”

SOT, Hamid Sajjadi, Youth and Sports Minister (Farsi): “Many are trying to, please forgive me [for saying this], take away our honour and leave us with humiliation. They talk to our athletes, they take them and they don’t bring them back. They deceive them and they do a lot of other things. They sit and conspire together [against us] and do a lot of things.”

SOT, Sasan Karimi, Captain of the National Swimming Team of the Workers of the Islamic Republic of Iran (Farsi): “Certainly, every athlete likes to see the fruits of his sport. I am no exception. However, due to the presence of the athletes of the evil Zionist regime, I preferred to forego the medal and not receive it, because [Israel] is a country that is killing children, which is unacceptable to all the people and Muslims of the world.”

SOT, Nazanin Malaei, Iranian rower (Farsi): “We must respect the ideals of our country and follow a series of views that all our elders followed, in honour of these dear ones. We live in a country that many other countries have a bad view of and are suspicious of. We must be able to defend against all of this and resist the hardships we endure.”

#IranianAthletes #Iran #Israel #Tokyo2020

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