Iran's national soccer team has received US visas to participate in next week's World Cup, which the United States co-hosts with Mexico and Canada, the White House told Reuters, BTA reported.
The Iranians, who are in Group G with Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand, were granted access to US territory just 10 days before their first match in Los Angeles, California. Reuters recalls that tensions have arisen over the Iranian soccer team's US visas in the context of the US war with Iran.
Iranian Ambassador to Mexico Abolfazl Pasandideh said last night that his compatriots on the national soccer team had not yet received visas, but according to the White House, this happened overnight, Reuters specifies.
Tehran changed the team's base, planned for the US state of Arizona, to a location in Tijuana, Mexico, due to visa problems and a spreading public opinion in Iran that the team's presence on American territory should be minimized.
Iran's first match on the schedule is on June 15 in Los Angeles against New Zealand. The match with Belgium is in the same American metropolis, and the match with Egypt is also on American soil - in Seattle.
This is the first championship in history since the beginning of the World Cup in 1930, in which a host country hosts a team from a country with which it is at war, Reuters points out.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told congressmen on Tuesday that the United States will not allow people associated with Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be part of the Iranian soccer delegation.