Iran bans U.S. wrestling team from 2017 World Cup in response to President Trump’s travel ban

Iran has barred the United States’ wrestling team from a vaunted international wrestling meet in February, the Islamic Republic New Agency reported on Friday. The decision was made in response to President Trump’s travel ban on seven majority Muslim countries, including Iran.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi said the decision to reject the American wrestling team was made by “a special committee, which opposed to presence of the team after necessary studies.”

The Wrestling World Cup, slated for Feb. 16-17 in Kermanshah, Iran, is considered one of the world’s premier wrestling events where top international teams vie for a title. The Cup was held in Los Angeles last year, and Iowa is scheduled to host the event in 2018.

Iran’s backlash follows a January statement about taking action in response to the Trump’s ban, according to their Foreign Affairs Ministry. Iran claimed they would take “proportionate legal, consular and political action” and “will take reciprocal measures in order to safeguard the rights of its citizens until the time of the removal of the insulting restrictions of the government of the United States against Iranian nationals.”

Christina Kelley, the chief international ambassador for USA Wrestling told the New York Times “We’re pretty devastated” about the ordeal.

Per the Times, Iran has won the World Cup five years in a row, and Iranians and Americans have rarely, if ever, had issues wrestling in each other’s countries. In 2013, the countries worked in unison to persuade the International Olympic Committee to keep wrestling in the Summer Olympics.

U.S. Olympic freestyle wrestling champion Jordan Burroughs felt the two countries missed an opportunity to bridge a gap amid political disagreement.

“Bummed, first and foremost. I just wanted to compete. It’s been a while since I competed,” Burroughs, who fell short of a medal in the Rio Olympics after winning gold in London, told NBC Sports. “I was excited to return to the mat. This was going to be a prestigious event that I got to do with my team members.

“I’m bummed because I think this was a great opportunity for us to show goodwill toward them by coming into a country where our governments may have opposed each other.”

Trump’s travel ban, signed on Jan. 27, is an executive order banning travelers, but not legal permanent U.S. residents, from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iraq, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. The order also institutes a 120-day ban on refugee admissions and an indefinite ban on Syrian refugee admissions.

President Trump’s ban has drawn widespread criticism. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit, accusing his administration of violating religious freedoms, according to Reuters. The travel ban followed previous executive orders designed to crack down on unauthorized immigration.

Iranians also have roots in American sports. Texas Rangers pitcher Yu Darvish is of Japanese-Iranian descent. The Green Bay Packers signed offensive tackle David Bakhtiari, whose father is Iranian, to a four-year contract extension last summer. New York Rangers center Mika Zibanejad has an Iranian father who lives in the U.S. but has a handful of family members living in Iran.

The NBA currently has no Iranian players on any of its 30 team rosters, but reached out to the State Department for clarity on how the mandate could impact players. Los Angeles Lakers forward Luol Deng and Milwaukee Bucks forward Thon Maker are both from South Sudan, which in 2011 won its independence from Sudan — a country listed on the executive order.

The NFL Players Association pledged to stand by their Muslim community on Thursday, according to Reuters, after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell swerved around a question regarding President Trump’s executive order.

“Our Muslim brothers that are in our league, we have their backs. We’re going to do whatever we can. And I’ll go stand with them,” NFLPA president and Cincinnati Bengals tackle Eric Winston said at the union’s Super Bowl news conference. “These guys that are players in the National Football League, their families are our families. And I take that seriously. They’re our brothers and we will stand with them.”