U.S. Grants Visas to Iranian World Cup Team Despite Ongoing Conflict

U.S. visas overnight after June 4, a White House official told Reuters on June 5. The confirmation came ten days before the team's first scheduled match in Los Angeles.

Iran's ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, said late on June 4 that the squad had not yet received the visas. The White House official stated the documents were granted after that remark. Tehran arranged a last-minute relocation of the team's base from Arizona to Tijuana, Mexico.

The players are scheduled to land in Tijuana early on the morning of June 7. Iran will play New Zealand on June 15 in Los Angeles, Belgium later in Los Angeles, and Egypt in Seattle. The current conflict between Iran and the United States has placed the tournament in a geopolitical context.

This marks the first World Cup since 1930 in which a host nation will receive a country with which it is at war. The United States has never formally stated it did not want the Iran team on its territory, Pasandideh said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on June 3 that the United States would not allow individuals linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards to join Iran's World Cup delegation.

Several players completed mandatory military service with the Revolutionary Guards. Mehdi Taj, president of Iran's soccer federation and a former Revolutionary Guards commander, was denied entry to the tournament draw in Washington in December. Pasandideh said Iran's participation demonstrates a desire for peace.

"Iran's participation in the World Cup -- even on the soil of what is seen as its enemy -- shows that Iran seeks peace," he said through a Spanish interpreter at the Iranian embassy in Mexico City. Progress in peace talks has been slow, with both sides moving toward an interim agreement while continuing military strikes, according to reporting on the situation.