دوباره قهر كردند
By: Jabbar Fazeli, MD
The USA wrestling (association) announced yesterday that the visiting Iranian wrestling team canceled their plans to participate in a second friendly exhibition game scheduled for Sunday in Los Angeles, USA, and returned to Iran. No reasons were given in the USA wrestling statement.
"We have been informed by the Iranian Wrestling Federation that the team's schedule has changed and they have departed for Iran and will not compete in the United 4 Wrestling event in Los Angeles on Sunday" (1).
The news was first carried by the Iranian website Khabaronline (خبر انلاين) yesterday. That report stated that the reason for the premature and hasty departure of the Iranian team was that the US police refused to provide security (2).
While bizarre, this drama is consistent with the Islamic Republic's erratic behavior we all have come to expect.
This decision to recall the wrestling team is consistent with the one dimensional thinking in Iran's foreign policy where hating America comes before the interests of the country and the nation as a whole.
The image of Iranian wrestlers having a friendly game with wrestlers of the "great Satan" may have proved to be too much for the regime in Iran.
So far, there is complete media silence in Iran on this issue. It appears that even the regime's own propaganda machine is having a hard time spinning this one on such short notice.
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