The Iranian girls’s footballers returning to the nation after their Asian Cup marketing campaign in Australia might be welcomed residence “with open arms”, Iran’s Ministry of International Affairs has stated.
Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei urged the gamers to “come residence” on Tuesday, hours after 5 members of Iran’s squad sought asylum in Australia following their group’s exit from the match.
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“To Iran’s girls’s soccer group: don’t fear – Iran awaits you with open arms,” Baghaei wrote on X.
His put up got here shortly after the workplace of Iran’s common prosecutor stated the remaining members of the group had been invited again to the nation “with peace and confidence”.
“These family members are invited to return to their homeland with peace and confidence, and along with addressing the issues of their households,” the final prosecutor’s workplace was quoted as saying by Iran’s Tasnim information company.
Australia’s determination to offer visas to 5 gamers got here amid uncertainty and issues for the group’s security following their determination to face in silence throughout Iran’s anthem earlier than their first match of the match on March 3.
The gamers sang and saluted the anthem of their remaining two matches, on Thursday and Sunday, prompting fears that they might face punishment upon their return home.
Australian Minister for Dwelling Affairs Tony Burke informed a information convention on Monday that he had knowledgeable the 5 members “that they’re welcome to remain in Australia, that they’re secure right here, and they need to really feel at residence right here”.
He added that he had additionally provided the opposite group members the possibility to remain in Australia.
The Division of Dwelling Affairs named the 5 group members as captain Zahra Ghanbari, midfielders Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali Alishah, Mona Hamoudi, and defender Atefeh Ramezanizadeh.
The gamers’ determination to face in silence throughout Iran’s anthem earlier than their match in opposition to South Korea was labelled because the “pinnacle of dishonour” by a commentator on Iran’s IRIB state broadcaster.
The announcement to grant the gamers visas got here after United States President Donald Trump, who’s presently waging war on Iran alongside ally Israel, stated he had spoken to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in regards to the “delicate scenario” confronted by the group, and that Albanese was “on it!”
Iran’s Baghaei dismissed Trump’s assertion, questioning the US president’s claims of “saving” the gamers after new footage of a February 28 assault on an Iranian elementary ladies’ college in Minab, which killed 165 college students, urged that the location of the varsity was probably hit by a Tomahawk missile – a weapon utilized by the US that Israel and Iran don’t possess.
The US had beforehand accused Iran of the assault.
“They slaughtered greater than 165 harmless Iranian schoolgirls in a double-tap Tomahawk assault within the metropolis of Minab, and now they wish to take our athletes hostage within the title of ‘saving’ them?” Baghaei stated.
Following the Australian authorities’s determination to grant humanitarian visas to 5 Iranian gamers, they had been moved to an undisclosed location underneath police safety, Australian officers had been quoted as saying by the Reuters information company.
Iranian media quoted Farideh Shojaei, vice chairman for girls’s affairs on the Iranian Soccer Federation, as saying the group had left the lodge by way of the again door with the police.
“We now have contacted the embassy, the soccer federation, the International Ministry and anyplace attainable to see what is going to occur,” she stated.
“We now have even spoken with the households of those 5 gamers.”
A number of the Iranian gamers left their lodge within the northeastern metropolis of Gold Coast on Tuesday afternoon on a bus that was surrounded by members of the diaspora protesting in opposition to the Iranian authorities. They flew to Sydney airport on Tuesday night earlier than being transferred to the worldwide terminal.
It was not clear what number of gamers arrived on the airport or the place they had been going.
Trump initially posted on social media that Australia was “making a horrible humanitarian mistake” by permitting the group to be despatched again residence, apparently unaware that Australia had been in secret talks with the ladies for a number of days.
Trump stated members of the group would “probably be killed” if compelled to return to Iran. “The US will take them for those who gained’t,” he added.
In a later put up, Trump stated he had spoken to Albanese and that the Australian chief was “doing an excellent job having to do with this quite delicate scenario”.
The Iranian common prosecutor’s workplace stated “some members of our nation’s girls’s soccer group have, unintentionally and emotionally provoked by the enemy’s conspiracy and mischief, behaved in a means that has triggered the delusional pleasure of the prison leaders of the imposed American-Zionist conflict.”
The US and Israel assaults on Iran have killed 1,255 individuals within the nation and left 1,200 injured after 11 days.
Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel and in the direction of a number of navy bases within the Center East the place US forces function.
