No visas for US women's badminton team: Iran
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran has not issued visas for the American women's badminton team that was to take part in a tournament in Tehran because of the team's late application, Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said on Wednesday.
The spokesman, Hasan Qashqavi, said the U.S. team will not “participate in the competition" due to a “lack of enough time to process" its visas.
The U.S. team had been expected to arrive in Tehran around noon Wednesday from Dubai.
It was to be the first U.S.-Iranian exchange under the Obama administration and was seen as part of a new U.S. approach to engage Iran. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 and the hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.
The 12-member team eight female players and four coaches and managers representing USA Badminton was to compete in the Iran Fajr International Badminton Tournament, which begins on Friday.
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It just doesn't work like that for international sports tournaments. During the Doha 2006 Games, whole teams would arrive at the airport with one passport and no visas between them. The organisers were meant to arrange the visas, but something went wrong. The authorities were flexible enough to get the teams through.
This is probably what happened with this event. The US team were invited, but the organisers couldn't get visas, or forgot to get visas for the competitors. Because of the current political tensions, the Tehran government isn't prepared to show any flexibility to make the event a success.
In every country, there is a procedure in obtaining visas..no excuses, they must obey as a show of respect to the host country..I believe this is nothing to do with politics but a matter of submitting your documents to their embassy/consulate office..
they're just players, they're not terrorists or spies. Oh, well...
"I do live by the motto that pessimists are usually right, but all the great change in history was done by optimists" -Thomas Friedman
Half of them are probably CIA agents..
If Iran withholds visas for athletes, and it smells like politics might be involved, the international sports bodies are less likely to award future tournaments to Tehran.
include these sports athletes with their conflicts.
"I do live by the motto that pessimists are usually right, but all the great change in history was done by optimists" -Thomas Friedman