Iran says sports should not be ‘political lever’ as Saudi ties move forward

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian says Tehran-Riyadh relations are moving forward and that sports-related issues should not be exploited as a lever for political purposes.

Amir-Abdollahian made the remark while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in the Iranian capital Tehran on Wednesday after the recent cancellation of a football match between Saudi and Iranian teams in the Asian Champions League.

The scheduled face-off between Saudi Arabia’s Al Ittihad and Iran’s Sepahan was called off after the Saudi team refused to leave the dressing room for the second round of the league's group stage at the Naghsh-e Jahan Stadium in the Iranian city of Isfahan.

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) said in a statement released after the cancellation that the match had been postponed “due to unanticipated and unforeseen circumstances.”

Unconfirmed reports as well as Saudi media outlets, including Al-Arabiya and Arab News, claimed that the Saudi squad left the stadium due to the presence of the statue of Iran’s top anti-terror commander Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US drone attack in Iraq in 2020.

“Regarding the incident that took place on Monday night between the two teams of Sepahan of Iran and Al Ittihad of Saudi Arabia, it is necessary to explain the issue and inform the public that me and the Saudi foreign minister were in direct contact and communication with each other at that time and our advice to AFC is to pass judgment on what happened on a technical basis,” Amir-Abdollahian told the reporters.

“There is a consensus between us and Saudi Arabia that the game will be repeated at a later time agreed upon by both sides,” he said, adding, “The relations between Tehran and Riyadh are moving forward on their course and we should not allow sports to become a political lever.”

Iran’s Sepahan underlined that it would file a complaint against Al Ittihad for refusing to show up at the pitch as the statue of the Iranian military icon had been at the field for more than four years.

Home-and-away football matches between the two West Asian countries resumed last month after their teams had played at neutral venues since 2016 over the severance of Saudi Arabia-Iran ties.

Back in March, Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed under a Chinese-brokered deal to revive diplomatic relations severed after seven years of tension.

Iran officially reopened its embassy in Riyadh in June, followed by its consulate in Jeddah and its representative office with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. The Saudi embassy in Tehran and its consulate in Mashhad have also resumed operations.

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