Iran's Parliament Abandons Bill to Bar Iranians from Competing Against Israeli Athletes

Mohammad Javad Jamali Nobandegani, a member of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, told the Borna News Agency that a clause banning Iranian athletes from competing with Israeli athletes was removed from a new sporting law.

Nobandegani had said the clause had been part of an “urgent plan” intended to “counteract the Zionist regime's hostile actions against regional and international peace and security.”

On May 14, the Fars News Agency's parliamentary service reported that Iran’s parliament had agreed on the urgency of considering a bill that would ban on Iranian athletes from competing with their Israeli counterparts.

IranWire reported that the move risked huge disruption to Iranian sports when international federations inevitably barred Iranian teams from major competitions. Iranian athletes have avoided competing against Israelis at international competitions since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But this had been done informally; had the Iranian government enshrined this practice in law, it could have triggered reprisals from bodies such as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and other sporting federations.

The speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, announced that 192 members of parliament were present at the voting, and that this urgent bill was approved by a considerable majority vote. It later emerged that no members had voted against the bill.

Larijani then asked the parliamentary committee on national security to approve the bill as soon as possible so that it could be discussed in a public session of parliament early next week.

Fars News Agency reported at the time that, following the approval of the urgency of the bill, members chanted the slogan "Death to Israel.”

The nature of Iranian sport would have been changed had the bill been approved in the public session next week. Article 3 of the Statute of the IOC states that "No Member State may discriminate against persons, groups or nationalities in the fields of sex, language, religion, race or politics and the like, otherwise they shall be suspended or expelled.” The IOC also states in a part of its constitution – which has been republished in the statutes of other world federations – that the IOC and affiliated national members are committed to respecting internationally-recognized human rights and striving to protect these rights.

Approving and legitimizing a ban on Iranians competing with Israeli athletes could have led to a decision to suspend all Iranian sports.

Parliament’s national security committee has now removed the clause in the bill banning Iranians from competing with Israeli athletes. Borna News Agency, close to the Ministry of Sports and Youth, first reported the news.