Americans barred from wrestling World Cup in Tehran

FreestyleWrestling2Tehran: Iran's Foreign Ministry has decided against the participation of the US men's freestyle wrestling team in the upcoming World Cup in the country, official IRNA news agency reported on Friday.

"The subject was discussed in a special committee and finally it decided against the travel of the US wrestling team to Iran" to partake in the competitions, the Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told IRNA, reports Xinhua news agency.

The recent US stances against Iran's citizens made the Foreign Ministry make such a decision, Qasemi was quoted as saying.

On January 31, Iran said it stopped granting visas to US citizens in response to Washington's recent travel ban against citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

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"We will not issue visa for Americans, but there will be exceptions for some whose cases will be referred to a committee which has been set up at the (Iranian) Foreign Ministry," Iran' Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump issued an executive order last Friday to restrict immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries that he said are "compromised by terrorism."

The men's World Cup wrestling competitions 2017 will be hosted in Tehran on February 17 and 18.