Iran calls for OIC action to ban Israel from international sports
Iran’s Minister of Sports and Youth Ahmad Donyamali has called on peers in the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to form a united front against the Israeli regime and help ban it from international sports.
In a letter to sports ministers of 57 member states of the OIC, Donyamali said there is a need for setting up a “Unified Islamic Sports Front” to call on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to suspend the Israeli regime’s presence in international sporting events.
He said in the letter that the Israeli regime has seriously undermined the Olympic Charter and the true spirit of sport through its actions in the occupied Palestine over the past eight decades, and particularly since October 2023, when it launched a genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza.
The International Convention against Apartheid in Sport (adopted by the UN in 1985) clearly affirms that sport should not serve as a platform for legitimizing regimes founded on discrimination and oppression.
Donyamali said the OIC member states should formally demand the suspension and expulsion of Israel from international sporting competitions.
He also expressed hope that Islamic countries “can harness the power of sports” to achieve justice, confront discrimination, and support the Palestinian people.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly criticized international sporting organizations for their double standard in dealing with Israel, saying the regime must be banned from global competitions in the same manner that countries like Russia and Belarus have been boycotted over their involvement in the Ukraine war.
The President of the Iranian National Paralympic Committee said in a speech to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) General Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, in late September that IPC members should act against Israel’s continued genocide in Gaza and its hostile actions against Iran and other countries.
That comes as the IPC lifted the partial suspension of Russia and Belarus following a decision made in the meeting in Seoul, while it has yet to make any decision on the presence of the Israeli regime in its competitions.
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