Iranian footballers returning to the country after their Asian Cup campaign in Australia will be welcomed home “with open arms”, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei urged players to “go home” on Tuesday, hours after five members of the Iranian team sought asylum in Australia following their team’s exit from the tournament.
Recommended stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“To the Iranian women’s soccer team: don’t worry: Iran is waiting for you with open arms,” Baghaei wrote in X.
Its release came shortly after Iran’s attorney general’s office said the remaining members of the team were invited to return to the country “with peace and confidence.”
“These loved ones are invited to return to their homeland with peace and confidence, in addition to addressing the concerns of their families,” the Iranian news agency Tasnim quoted the attorney general’s office as saying.
Australia’s decision to grant visas to five players came amid uncertainty and concern for the team’s safety following their decision to remain silent during Iran’s anthem before their first match of the tournament on March 3.
Players sang and saluted the anthem in the remaining two games, Thursday and Sunday, raising fears that they could face punishment upon their return home.
Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said at a news conference on Monday that he had informed the five members “that they can stay in Australia, that they are safe here and that they should feel at home.”
He added that he had also offered the other members of the team the chance to stay in Australia.
The Department of the Interior named the five members of the team: captain Zahra Ghanbari, midfielders Fatemeh Pasandideh, Zahra Sarbali Alishah, Mona Hamoudi and defender Atefeh Ramezanizadeh.
The players’ decision to remain silent during Iran’s anthem before their match against South Korea was called the “pinnacle of dishonour” by a commentator on Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB.
The announcement to grant visas to the players came after US President Donald Trump, who is currently fighting a war against Iran alongside ally Israel, said he had spoken to Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about the “delicate situation” facing the team, and that Albanese was “on it”.
Iran’s Baghaei dismissed Trump’s statement, questioning the US president’s claims to “save” the players after new footage of a February 28 attack on an Iranian girls’ primary school in Minab, which killed 165 students, suggested the school site was likely hit by a Tomahawk missile, a weapon used by the United States that Israel and Iran do not possess.
The United States had previously accused Iran of the attack.
“They killed over 165 innocent Iranian schoolgirls in a double-tap Tomahawk attack in Minab City, and now they want to take our athletes hostage under the pretext of ‘saving’ them?” Baghaei said.
Following the Australian government’s decision to grant humanitarian visas to five Iranian players, they were transferred to an undisclosed location under police protection, Australian officials were quoted as saying by the Reuters news agency.
Iranian media quoted Farideh Shojaei, vice president of women’s affairs at the Iranian Football Federation, as saying that the team had left the hotel through the back door with police.
“We have contacted the embassy, the football federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and wherever possible to see what will happen,” he said.
“We have even spoken to the families of these five players.”
Some of the Iranian players left their hotel in the northeastern city of the Gold Coast on Tuesday afternoon on a bus that was surrounded by members of the diaspora protesting against the Iranian government. They flew into Sydney Airport on Tuesday afternoon before being transferred to the international terminal.
It was unclear how many players arrived at the airport or where they were headed.
Trump initially posted on social media that Australia was “making a terrible humanitarian mistake” by allowing the team to be sent home, apparently unaware that Australia had been in secret talks with the women for several days.
Trump said the team members “would probably be killed” if they were forced to return to Iran. “The United States will accept you if you don’t,” he added.
In a later post, Trump said he had spoken with Albanese and that the Australian leader was “doing a very good job in this rather delicate situation.”
The Iranian attorney general’s office said that “some members of our country’s women’s soccer team, unintentionally and emotionally provoked by the conspiracy and mischief of the enemy, behaved in a manner that has caused the delirious excitement of the criminal leaders of the imposed Zionist-American war.”
The US and Israeli attacks on Iran have killed 1,255 people in the country and injured 1,200 after 11 days.
Tehran has responded by launching waves of missiles and drones at Israel and at several military bases in the Middle East where US forces operate.
