Khamenei reaffirms Iran’s ban on competing against Israeli athletes, offers compensation as incentive for compliance

Last year, Iran’s Weightlifting Federation imposed a lifetime ban on Iranian professional weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei for shaking hands with an Israeli athlete.

By Shiryn Ghermezian, The Algemeiner

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei restated the country’s long-established ban on competing against Israelis while on Tuesday addressing Iranian athletes who competed in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic competitions in Paris.

Khamenei also called on Iranian officials to compensate athletes who withdraw from matches to avoid facing an opponent from Israel, Iran International reported.

He said Iranian athletes are making a “sacrifice” by pulling out of competitions against Israelis because of their national and religious beliefs, and they need to be recognized and supported by Iranian officials, according to the Tehran Times.

The Iranian leader further accused the governing body of the Olympics and Paralympics of displaying a “double standard” by banning Russia from both international competitions, because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, while allowing Israel to still compete despite the raging war between the Jewish state and the Hamas terrorist organization that orchestrated the Oct. 7 deadly terrorist attacks across southern Israel.

The Iranian regime backs Hamas and has for years provided the terrorist organization with arms, funding, and training.

Khamenei then accused Israel of killing 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip, a death toll announced by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health that cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists.

Even the United Nations, a vocal critic of Israel’s war effort, has cited erroneous figures in the health ministry’s reported deaths.

The Israeli military said last month that it had killed 17,000 terrorists in Gaza since the beginning of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7.

“Something else that was noticeable this year in the Olympic Games was the double standard of the countries that decide on issues concerning international sports. They truly demonstrated that duel, biased policies govern what they do,” Khamenei claimed during his speech on Tuesday.

“They ban a certain government or country from participating because it started a war somewhere. But with regard to the Zionist regime, which has killed thousands of children and over 41,000 people in less than a single year, they don’t ban it from the Games. This is a double standard. They are being biased.”

“They say sports shouldn’t be mixed with politics, yet they are the ones who exhibit and demonstrate the most politically biased behavior in sports,” he added.

Iran’s policy against competing head-to-head with Israeli athletes goes back to 1979. Iranian athletes are often pressured by their coaches and Iranian sports federations to either pull out of matches or intentionally lose to avoid competing against an opponent from Israel.

“Our athlete refuses to compete or play against a Zionist opponent, and because of this, they pay a price. We must not neglect the well-being of this athlete,” Khamenei said on Tuesday.

He then stressed that the Iranian government has an obligation to assist with the financial needs of these athletes.

Ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, Israel’s foreign minister warned France of an Iranian-backed terrorist plot to attack Israeli athletes competing in the Olympics.

Some athletes in Israel’s Olympic delegation also had their personal information hacked and published online, and Israel’s National Cyber Directorate concluded that Iranian hackers were responsible for the leak.

Last year, Iran’s Weightlifting Federation imposed a lifetime ban on Iranian professional weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei for shaking hands with an Israeli athlete at the World Masters Championships in Poland.

The head of Iran’s weightlifting federation described his actions as “unacceptable and unforgivable.”