British MP Calls On FIFA To Throw Out Iran From World Cup
A British member of parliament says international football (soccer) governing body FIFA should stop Iran from participating in the World Cup for its supply of weaponry for the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Labor MP Chris Bryant, the chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Russia and former Foreign Office minister, told Telegraph Sport on Monday that any country founded to have “provided military support” for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion should be banished from world sport.
He called on FIFA to make a move before Iran’s national football team’s opening match against England.
Referring to FIFA and UEFA’s decisions to throw Russia out of the international football events in the wake of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, including from March’s World Cup play-offs and the entire 2024 European Championship, he said, “Sporting authorities around the world and in every sport should be looking very carefully at Iran’s direct engagement and support for Putin in his illegal invasion of Ukraine.”
“Dictatorial regimes relish sporting success. We should deny them that opportunity,” he noted.
Since March, many Iranians themselves have been urging FIFA to ban Team Melli from the World Cup for forcibly barring women from entering stadiums to watch matches. Under FIFA pressure, Iranian authorities started to let in a cherrypicked group for women so they would not face bans and penalties. However, since the start of the current uprising across Iran and a lackluster support from the national squad, the calls on FIFA to ban Iran have become stronger.
An Australian MP says Canberra must designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization and cooperate with UN states to remove Iran from the women commission.
Monique Ryan told Iran International’s correspondent that the government of Prime Minister Anthony Albanese should also work with other UN states to remove Iran from United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) amid the Islamic Republic's crackdown on the current uprising spearheaded by Iranian women and ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.
Expressing grave concern over “what has been done to young people in Iran by the government,” she praised the courage of people “for standing up for their rights.” She added, “Being physically punished for that is deeply shocking and very concerning for all Australians.”
Referring to a letter to the Albanese Government signed by her as well as several other lawmakers, she said they called on Canberra to act “more forcefully to express the repugnance felt by the Australian people towards the recent treatment of peaceful demonstrators."
She said they specifically requested Magnitsky-style targeted sanctions including financial asset freezes and travel bans against members of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), key security officials and the so-called morality police. “We also asked the government to declare the IRGC as a terrorist force as has been done in the US and Canada,” she said, adding that they also called on the government to join other states to remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.
Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Tuesday he had called on President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to break off Ukraine’s diplomatic relations with Iran.
Kuleba said Kyiv was willing to share a “bag of evidence” with the European Union that Russia had used Iranian-made military drones in the current conflict. The EU is currently considering sanctions against Iran should the Ukrainian claims be proved.
Russia used dozens of ‘kamikaze’ drones in attacks Monday that Ukraine says were Shahed-136s, killing four people in Kyiv. “Tehran bears full responsibility for the destruction of relations with Ukraine”, Kuleba told a news conference.
While Iran has denied supplying drones to Russia, analysts point out they could be a cheap if less effective alternative to Russia’s diminishing stocks of missiles. The State Department’s Vedant Patel Monday backed up Ukraine’s claims, saying there was “extensive proof” Russia was using Iranian-made drones.
Iran has been a close military ally of Russia in the Syrian war, where Moscow supplies air power and Tehran tens of thousands of militia ground troops to defeat the opponents of Bashar al Assad's government.
In his press conference, Kuleba also said Kyiv would send an official note to Israel seeking military aid including air defense supplies. Disappointed at Israel’s refusal to supply weapons, Ukrainian officials have sought to highlight Iran’s relationship with Russia.
Ukraine and Iran have maintained diplomatic relations despite disagreements and an exchange of sharp language over the January 2020 shooting down by Iranian air defenses of a Ukrainian passenger plane, killing all 176 aboard, during heighted US-Iran tensions.
In an analysis Tuesday, the New York Times argued that a Tehran-Moscow“alliance” was “raising the pressure on Israel, Iran’s sworn enemy, to take Ukraine’s side in the war.”
On Sunday Nachman Shai, Israel’s Minister for Diaspora Affairs, argued for sending military aid to Kyiv on top of existing humanitarian relief. But Tuesday, before Kuleba’s remarks, Justice Minister Gideon Saar, who sits on Israel’s decision-making security cabinet, told national broadcaster Army Radio that Israel’s support for Kyiv “does not include weapons systems and weaponry - and there is no change to that position.”
‘Reckless’ supply
Dmitri Medvedev, deputy head of Russia’s Security Council, warned Monday that “reckless” supply of Israeli hardware would “destroy all interstate relations between our countries.” Around 15 percent of voters in Israel, where there is a general election November 1, are Russian-speakers. Israel has also had intelligence coordination with Russia in Syria, where both air-forces have operated during the decade-long conflict.
Ukraine has been successful gaining military aid from the European Union, whose foreign ministers’ meeting in Luxemburg Kuleba addressed virtually Tuesday “from the bomb shelter.” The foreign minister tweeted that he had asked the Europeans for “more air defense and ammunition” and for “sanctions against Iran for supplying the Russian Federation with drones.” The EU announced Tuesday a further €500-million ($492 million) military supplies to Ukraine, bringing the total to €3.1 billion ($3.01 billion). United States support is around $17 billion so far.
Argentina has called on Qatar to arrest visiting Iranian vice president Mohsen Rezaei over his alleged responsibility for the deadly 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center.
According to the official Telam news agency on Monday, special prosecutors have submitted a petition to Argentina's foreign ministry calling for all appropriate diplomatic levers to be pulled.
The ministry "requested the collaboration of Interpol for the arrest," while Foreign Minister Santiago Cafiero "instructed the Argentine ambassador in Doha... to communicate urgently with the Qatari Foreign Ministry and report on the situation," a diplomatic source said.
Ebrahim Raisi’s vice president for economic affairs, Revolutionary Guard’s commander Rezaei (Rezai) is wanted by Argentinian special prosecutors for alleged participation in the planning of the July 18, 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, or AMIA, which killed 85 people and wounded 300.
In 2007, INTERPOL General Assembly upheld the unanimous decision made by the organization’s Executive Committee to publish six out of nine Red Notices requested in connection with the AMIA.
The notices were requested by the Argentinean National Central Bureau (NCB) for Imad Fayez Moughnieh, the number two in Iran-backed Hezbollah, Iran’s Former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, Cleric Mohsen Rabbani – known as the chief architect of Iran's Latin American missionary network -- Iranian diplomat Ahmad Reza Asghari – aka Hamid-Reza Es’hagi and Moshen Ranjbaran -- and Revolutionary Guards commander and incumbent Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi as well as Mohsen Rezaei.
Earlier in the year, Argentina condemned the presence of Rezaei in the inauguration of the new Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega, describing it as an insult to the victims of the bombing of the Jewish center.
Iran-European Union relations have soured with claims Tehran has supplied Russia with armed drones used in Ukraine, although the EU is not yet expected to agree new sanctions.
Arriving in Luxemburg Monday for a meeting of EU foreign ministers, Josep Borrell, the EU foreign policy chief, said Europe would look for “concrete evidence” over reports that Russia had used Shahed-136 drones in recent weeks. The Washington Post backed up Ukrainian claims Sunday citing US and “allied” officials speaking anonymously.
The Washington Post cited “an intelligence assessment shared in recent days with Ukrainian and US officials [that] contends Iran’s armaments industry is preparing a first shipment of [surface-to-surface] Fateh-110 and Zolfagher missiles…” Reuters reported Monday its reporter had seen pieces of a drone bearing the words ‘For Belgorod,’ presumably referring to Saturday’s gunning down of 11 Russian trainee soldiers 40km north of the Ukraine border.
There have been differences within the 27-member EU over the Russia-Ukraine conflict over the extent of sanctions against Moscow, which continues to supply gas and oil to many European states. Denmark’s Foreign Minister, the Social Democrat Jeppe Kofod, called Monday for the EU to take “concrete steps” in response to Russian attacks on Kyiv Monday morning, with Reuters reporting at least three deaths. “Iranian drones are used apparently to attack in the middle of Kyiv, this is an atrocity,” Kofod said.
France has argued that Iran supplying drones to Russia would violate United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorsed the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Paris bases its case on the non-binding, informal Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) agreed by 35 states including Russia.
As signatories to the JCPOA, both France and Germany have been involved in the talks aimed at reviving the agreement, which the US left in 2018 prompting Iran to expand its nuclear program beyond JCPOA limits. The leeway for new European sanctions has been reduced by decline of Europe-Iran trade given European companies’ fear of US action against them under the ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions Washington introduced on leaving the JCPOA. Nonetheless, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn Monday it was “no longer” enough just to extended the existing list of sanctioned Iranian individuals.
Iran denies supplying weapons to Russia. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Saturday – in comments made by telephone to Portuguese foreign minister Joao Gomes Cravinho – that Tehran believed “the arming of each side of the crisis will prolong the war.” The US has sent Ukraine $16.8 billion in aid, mainly in weapons, and the EU $2.5 billion, although Washington is denying Ukraine more advanced weapons so as to avoid escalation. Washington has said it wants to degrade Russian capacity as its stocks of Cruise and other missiles diminish.
‘Inconsistent behavior’
Comments made Monday by Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani reflected a deteriorating tone in EU-Iran relations. Kanaani highlighted what he said was “inconsistent behavior” by the French in suggesting there was “good and bad terrorism” and in condemning “disturbances” and “labor strikes” in France but welcoming them in Iran.
Kanaani portrayed Iran as an “anchor of stability” in a region where many countries – he cited Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria – “fell into chaos and were exposed to terrorism and foreign attacks.” The spokesman said that an arson attack on an Iranian school in Hamburg Thursday showed a failure to provide security for “Iranian diplomatic places.” He said there was a “bitter irony that the countries that export millions of dollars of arms to one side of the war [had] started a propaganda war against Iran.”
Kanaani stressed that while new EU sanctions would lead to “reciprocal reactions” from Iran, “the path of negotiations” was separate. The EU has coordinated efforts to revive the 2015 agreement, both in meetings April 2021-March 2022 in Vienna of all JCPAO signatories (China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia, the United Kingdom, with the United States taking part indirectly) and in subsequent bilateral contacts between Iran and the US. Kanaani also said Monday a prisoner exchange with the US was being held up by Washington’s insistence that the 2015 agreement be revived first.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) has launched a large-scale military drill in the northwestern region of Aras along the borders of Armenia and Azerbaijan.
The IRGC on Monday kicked off its three-day military exercise -- codenamed “IRGC Ground Force’s Might” -- in areas striding the northern sectors of East Azarbaijan and Ardabil provinces.
IRGC Ground Force Commander Brigadier-General Mohammad Pakpour said the war game is part of an annual routine aimed at boosting the force’s combat preparedness.
Heliborne parachute operations, night raids, helicopter combat ops, and suicide drone operations were carried out during the first day of the exercises. Construction of a temporary bridge over the Aras River which separates Iran from Azerbaijan and Armenia, seizure and control of supply roads and heights, and offensive as well as destructive operations against designated targets constitute other parts of the drill.
Armenia accuses Azerbaijan of attacking its towns to escape negotiating over the status of the mainly Armenian-populated enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh in Azerbaijan.
Tehran in the past has also expressed alarm at alleged Israeli military presence in Azerbaijan.
