World
Kick Iran out of Olympics, World Cup for execution of over 30 athletes, activists demand
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A longtime critic of the Iranian regime and the former head of the rogue nation’s national wrestling team are urging sports organizations to ban Iran from competitions just weeks after Tehran executed thousands of anti-government demonstrators.
The sport of wrestling, a national pastime in Iran, has been hit hard by the Iranian regime’s slaughter of protesters seeking to end 47 years of Islamist totalitarian rule in the country.
According to a report Friday from the London-based independent news organization Iran International, the clerical regime killed Parsa Lorestani, a 15-year-old protester and wrestler from the city of Zagheh in western Iran. A government sniper allegedly killed Lorestani in the city of Khorramabad during a protest Jan. 8. The outlet showed video of the young boy wrestling.
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Wrestling champion Saleh Mohammadi faces imminent execution in Iran for protest participation as international pressure mounts to save the athlete. (The Foreign Desk)
“Another wrestler murdered. Erfan Kari was 20. A champion,” Iranian-American Sardar Parshaei, former head coach of Iran’s national Greco-Roman wrestling, wrote on his X account Friday.
“He could have been an Olympian. Instead, the Islamic regime shot him for protesting. Other wrestlers are still in prison. Be their voice. Save them.”
Prominent dissident Masih Alinejad announced to her 786.800 followers in an X post Friday, “The Islamic Republic has slaughtered over 40,000 protesters, thousands of them athletes, children, teenagers, young people, women, men, and from various sports disciplines. At the same time, the regime shamelessly exploits international sporting events to legitimize itself and whitewash its crimes. With the upcoming FIFA World Cup to be hosted in the United States, we demand that FIFA take a firm and principled stand.”
Alinejad noted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is recognized by the U.S. and European Union as a terrorist organization, controls all aspects of Iranian society, including sports.
“FIFA, the International Olympic Committee and all global sports organizations must refuse to legitimize a system that massacres its own people and athletes for demanding freedom and human dignity,” Alinejad said. “Boycott the Islamic Republic from all international sporting competitions.”
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei sits next to a senior military official in Iran. (Getty Images)
Afsoon Roshanzamir Johnston, the first American female wrestler to win a medal in world championship competition in 1989, told Fox News Digital the slaughter of protesters in her homeland makes her sick.
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“It is with a very sad and heavy heart that I speak for the Iranian people and the dire situation currently unfolding in my homeland,” she said. “Having been a young girl in Iran during the 1979 Revolution, I vividly remember the feeling of the clocks being turned back 100 years as women’s freedoms and fundamental human rights were stripped away overnight.”
Roshanzamir Johnston said women are denied the basic right to participate in athletics, and young male wrestlers are being tortured and executed.
“We can no longer turn a blind eye to this brutality,” she said. “It is time for a call to action: We must find a way to place undeniable pressure on the regime to end these mass killings without stripping our athletes of their hard-earned opportunities. The world must stand with the people of Iran before more of our bravest souls are lost.”
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Parshaei, who was a world champion Greco-Roman wrestler, told Fox News Digital he is also campaigning for the IOC and United World Wrestling to block Iran from competitions.
Sepehr Ebrahimi was shot and killed by security forces during anti-regime protests near Tehran Jan. 11. (Simay Azadi/National Council of Resistance of Iran )
When asked if the IOC would ban Iran and whether the Olympic body agrees with the U.S. demand that Iran not execute 19-year-old wrestler Saleh Mohammadi, who faces an imminent death penalty, the IOC media team directed Fox News Digital to a Jan. 29 statement on the matter.
“We will continue to work with our Olympic stakeholders to help where we can, often through quiet sport diplomacy. The IOC remains in touch with the Olympic community from Iran.”
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Dan Russell, executive director of U.S.-based Wrestling for Peace, said sports and diplomacy can be complicated, but in the current situation, athletes must stand together.
“Neutrality cannot mean indifference when lives are at stake,” Russell said. “Sport must take a stand for peace, respect and human dignity.
“Every option must be considered to demand an immediate halt to executions, the release of imprisoned wrestlers such as Saleh Mohammadi and Alireza Nejati and basic protections for athletes who speak with conscience,” Russell added. “Athletes who represent the best of who we are as the wrestling family. “
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A spokesman for Iran’s U.N. mission told Fox News Digital, “The mission declined to comment.”
But not all critics of Tehran’s brutal regime support banning Iran from sports competitions.
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“I am not in favor of banning Iran’s wrestling team,” said Potkin Azarmehr, a British Iranian expert on the Islamic Republic. “If Iran’s wrestling team competes, it’s an opportunity for more defections and protests against the regime by the spectators which will be televised and reach millions of viewers inside Iran, too.
“The ban would just be a blanket victimization of other wrestlers who have trained long hours for this,” he added. “Having said that, the IOC and UWW should make some statement and make sure spectators are allowed to display pictures of the fallen wrestlers.”
World
Investors brace for a bigger backlash from Middle East war
World
Tel Aviv analyst shelters from 30 missile sirens in 48 hours, says Iran ‘won’t recover’
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The past 48 hours in Tel Aviv have been unlike anything seen before, a leading security analyst has said, as sirens blared amid missile threats following Operation Epic Fury and U.S.-Israeli strikes in Iran.
“We are facing a biblical event — nothing less,” Kobi Michael, a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies and the Misgav Institute, told Fox News Digital, speaking from his shelter in the city.
Like many Israelis, Michael said he had spent hours in reinforced rooms during the ongoing barrage, adding that he was “very experienced in this.”
“But this all requires time and determination, and I do hope that Trump will also have them both,” he said, speaking shortly after the president released a video message stating that the military operation would continue “until all of our objectives are achieved.”
Explosions from projectile interceptions by Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system over Tel Aviv. (JACK GUEZ / AFP via Getty Images)
“Trump is the only one who can make the change — and that change will impact the entire region and the international order for years to come,” Michael added.
As of Sunday, Tel Aviv remained under a state of emergency following Iranian missile attacks that caused casualties and widespread damage.
According to The Associated Press, Iranian missile and drone strikes have killed approximately 11 Israeli civilians and wounded dozens more in retaliation for the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
Shrapnel from missile impacts damaged at least 40 buildings in Tel Aviv, and authorities reported at least one death in the area from falling debris.
The Philippine Embassy in Israel confirmed the death of a Filipino national after a missile strike hit Tel Aviv on Saturday.
TOMAHAWKS, B-2 STEALTH BOMBERS AND ATTACK DRONES POUND OVER 1,000 IRANIAN TARGETS IN 24-HOUR BLITZ
People take shelter as Iran launched missiles and drones towards Israel following the US-Israeli attacks. ( Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“We enter our shelter once the siren is heard and stay there until the Home Front Command announces that we can leave,” Michael said.
“Usually, it is about 20 to 30 minutes — unless there are further sirens during our stay. Since yesterday morning, it has happened around 30 times.”
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog also visited an impact site in Tel Aviv Sunday, delivering a message of resilience.
“The people of Israel and the people of Iran can live in peace. The region can live in peace. But what undermines peace time and again is terror instigated by this Iranian regime,” Herzog said.
EXILED IRANIAN CROWN PRINCE SAYS US STRIKES MARK ‘BEGINNING OF THE VERY END’ FOR REGIME
Israeli emergency service officer walks past building debris at the scene of a Iranian missile attack. (Ahmad GHARABLI / AFP via Getty Images)
Following the reported killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and roughly 40 senior Iranian officials, Iran formed a provisional leadership council.
Iran named Ayatollah Alireza Arafi, President Masoud Pezeshkian and Judiciary Chief Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i to lead roles.
“The Supreme Leader did not complete the necessary groundwork regarding his own succession,” Michael added.
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“Pezeshkian will face very troubling challenges due to their heavy losses, severe disruptions to control and command systems, and the massive bombing and attacks across Iran, including Tehran,” he said.
“Even if this regime doesn’t collapse, it will never be able to reconstitute itself, recover or return to its previous position,” Michael added.
World
Israel FM says Europe too divided, slams Spanish PM
Israeli minister Gideon Sa’ar said Europe “does not have unified position” on what role it should play in Iran as European ministers sought to establish a joint approach Sunday.
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As Israel and the United States conducted a joint military strike on Iran, leading to the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Europe was kept on the sidelines.
EU member states did not participate in the operation and, in some cases, they were not informed prior as it is customary among strategic allies.
Asked whether Israel sought to keep Europe on the margins, Sa’ar said internal divisions within EU member states had kept them out of critical exchanges of operational details, unlike the United States, which the minister described as his country’s greatest ally.
“In Europe, you have all kinds of approaches,” he told Euronews. “You have countries like the Czech Republic which is strongly supporting this operation and then you have Spain, which is standing with all the tyrants of the world.”
On Saturday, Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez was among the most critical voices in Europe, suggesting the US-Israeli strikes on Iran risk plunging the region into total war.
“We reject the unilateral military action of the United States and Israel, which represents an escalation and contributes to a more uncertain and hostile international order,” Sánchez said Saturday. The Spanish PM reiterated that message on Sunday.
“We urge for de-escalation and call to respect international law in all conflicts,” Sánchez added. “You can be against a heinous regime, like the Iranian regime, while also rejecting a military intervention that is unjustified, dangerous and outside of international law.”
Sa’aar said Israel considers the operation “fully justified” citing the right to self-defense from a regime that “has called for the destruction of Israel” and lashed at the Spanish prime minister for sending an “anti-Israeli, anti-American message.”
“Read the statement, they are standing with Iran!” he added.
When asked if any of his European counterparts had manifested an interest in joining the military operation or provide support on the ground, Sa’ar said he held multiple exchanges with European ministers over the weekend and suggested that “if others want to join, they will know have to convey the message.”
On Sunday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen appeared to back regime change in Iran in line with Israel and the US, saying that the “risk of further escalation is real. This is why a credible transition in Iran is urgently needed” in comments on Sunday.
Sa’ar told Euronews said the strategic strikes and the elimination of Khamenei alongside top regime commanders could “create the conditions to weaken the regime enough to allow the Iranians to take their future into their own hands”.
“The future leadership of Iran should be determined by the Iranian people through free elections. Our only requirement is that whoever comes to power in Iran must not pursue the destruction of Israel,” he said.
Watch the full interview on Euronews from 8pm CET
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