Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ismail Bagaei criticized this Tuesday (10) the Australian government’s decision to grant asylum to five players from the Iranian women’s football team who are in the country after participating in the Asian Cup, and considered that they are taking them “as hostages”.
“They killed more than 165 innocent Iranian students in a double attack with a Tomahawk (cruise missile) in the city of Minab, and now they want to take our athletes hostage guaranteeing that they are ‘saving’ them? The audacity and hypocrisy are surprising,” Bagaei said in a post on the social network X.
US President Donald Trump on Monday asked the Australian government to grant asylum to the Iranian women’s team and said Washington would welcome the athletes if Canberra did not agree to take them in.
In light of this announcement, Australian authorities reported today that they have granted humanitarian visas to five of the 25 called up, while the rest of the team members remain in Sydney waiting to travel to Malaysia in the next few hours, according to the Australian public network ABC.
Furthermore, the broadcaster reported that at least two other players had requested asylum in Australia, although authorities have only confirmed the authorization of five humanitarian visas so far.
Iran’s foreign affairs spokesman said the country awaits the return of the football team members “with open arms” and called on the others to “return home.”
The soccer players, who arrived in Australia for the women’s Asian Cup last month before the war in Iran broke out, were embroiled in controversy after they did not sing the national anthem during their championship debut in a match against South Korea, although they sang it in their second and third games.
An Iranian state TV channel called the players “traitors”, who ended their participation in the tournament last Sunday after being eliminated.
