The Iranian girls’s footballers returning to the nation after their Asian Cup marketing campaign in Australia might be welcomed dwelling “with open arms”, Iran’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs has mentioned.
Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei urged the gamers to “come dwelling” on Tuesday, hours after 5 members of Iran’s squad sought asylum in Australia following their workforce’s exit from the match.
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“To Iran’s girls’s soccer workforce: don’t fear – Iran awaits you with open arms,” Baghaei wrote on X.
His submit got here shortly after the workplace of Iran’s normal prosecutor mentioned the remaining members of the workforce 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 overall prosecutor’s workplace was quoted as saying by Iran’s Tasnim information company.
Australia’s choice to supply visas to 5 gamers got here amid uncertainty and issues for the workforce’s security following their choice 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 may face punishment upon their return dwelling.
Australian Minister for House 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 protected right here, and they need to really feel at dwelling right here”.
He added that he had additionally provided the opposite workforce members the prospect to remain in Australia.
The Division of House Affairs named the 5 workforce members as captain Zahra Ghanbari, midfielders Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali Alishah, Mona Hamoudi, and defender Atefeh Ramezanizadeh.
The gamers’ choice to face in silence throughout Iran’s anthem earlier than their match towards 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 warfare on Iran alongside ally Israel, mentioned he had spoken to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese concerning the “delicate scenario” confronted by the workforce, 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’ faculty in Minab, which killed 165 college students, advised that the positioning of the varsity was doubtless 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 need to take our athletes hostage within the identify of ‘saving’ them?” Baghaei mentioned.
Following the Australian authorities’s choice 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, vp for ladies’s affairs on the Iranian Soccer Federation, as saying the workforce had left the resort by way of the again door with the police.
“We’ve got contacted the embassy, the soccer federation, the Overseas Ministry and wherever doable to see what’s going to occur,” she mentioned.
“We’ve got even spoken with the households of those 5 gamers.”
Among the Iranian gamers left their resort within the northeastern metropolis of Gold Coast on Tuesday afternoon on a bus that was surrounded by members of the diaspora protesting towards 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 workforce to be despatched again dwelling, apparently unaware that Australia had been in secret talks with the ladies for a number of days.
Trump mentioned members of the workforce would “doubtless be killed” if pressured to return to Iran. “The US will take them if you happen to received’t,” he added.
In a later submit, Trump mentioned he had spoken to Albanese and that the Australian chief was “doing an excellent job having to do with this fairly delicate scenario”.
The Iranian normal prosecutor’s workplace mentioned “some members of our nation’s girls’s soccer workforce have, unintentionally and emotionally provoked by the enemy’s conspiracy and mischief, behaved in a approach that has brought about the delusional pleasure of the felony leaders of the imposed American-Zionist warfare.”
The US and Israel assaults on Iran have killed 1,255 folks 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 direction of a number of army bases within the Center East the place US forces function.
