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Khamenei Reaffirms Iran’s Ban on Competing Against Israeli Athletes, Offers Compensation as Incentive for Compliance
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaking to members of Iran’s 2024 Olympic and Paralympic delegations. Photo: Screenshot
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei restated the country’s long-established ban on competing against Israelis while on Tuesday addressing Iranian athletes who competed in the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic competitions in Paris.
Khamenei also called on Iranian officials to compensate athletes who withdraw from matches to avoid facing an opponent from Israel, Iran International reported. He said Iranian athletes are making a “sacrifice” by pulling out of competitions against Israelis because of their national and religious beliefs, and they need to be recognized and supported by Iranian officials, according to the Tehran Times.
The Iranian leader further accused the governing body of the Olympics and Paralympics of displaying a “double standard” by banning Russia from both international competitions, because of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, while allowing Israel to still compete despite the raging war between the Jewish state and the Hamas terrorist organization that orchestrated the Oct. 7 deadly terrorist attacks across southern Israel. The Iranian regime backs Hamas and has for years provided the terrorist organization with arms, funding, and training.
Khamenei then accused Israel of killing 41,000 people in the Gaza Strip, a death toll announced by the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health that cannot be independently verified and does not distinguish between civilians and terrorists. Even the United Nations, a vocal critic of Israel’s war effort, has cited erroneous figures in the health ministry’s reported deaths.
The Israeli military said last month that it had killed 17,000 terrorists in Gaza since the beginning of the war against Hamas on Oct. 7.
“Something else that was noticeable this year in the Olympic Games was the double standard of the countries that decide on issues concerning international sports. They truly demonstrated that duel, biased policies govern what they do,” Khamenei claimed during his speech on Tuesday. “They ban a certain government or country from participating because it started a war somewhere. But with regard to the Zionist regime, which has killed thousands of children and over 41,000 people in less than a single year, they don’t ban it from the Games. This is a double standard. They are being biased.”
“They say sports shouldn’t be mixed with politics, yet they are the ones who exhibit and demonstrate the most politically biased behavior in sports,” he added.
Iran’s policy against competing head-to-head with Israeli athletes goes back to 1979. Iranian athletes are often pressured by their coaches and Iranian sports federations to either pull out of matches or intentionally lose to avoid competing against an opponent from Israel.
“Our athlete refuses to compete or play against a Zionist opponent, and because of this, they pay a price. We must not neglect the well-being of this athlete,” Khamenei said on Tuesday. He then stressed that the Iranian government has an obligation to assist with the financial needs of these athletes.
Ahead of the Olympic Games in Paris this summer, Israel’s foreign minister warned France of an Iranian-backed terrorist plot to attack Israeli athletes competing in the Olympics. Some athletes in Israel’s Olympic delegation also had their personal information hacked and published online, and Israel’s National Cyber Directorate concluded that Iranian hackers were responsible for the leak.
Last year, Iran’s Weightlifting Federation imposed a lifetime ban on Iranian professional weightlifter Mostafa Rajaei for shaking hands with an Israeli athlete at the World Masters Championships in Poland. The head of Iran’s weightlifting federation described his actions as “unacceptable and unforgivable.”
The post Khamenei Reaffirms Iran’s Ban on Competing Against Israeli Athletes, Offers Compensation as Incentive for Compliance first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.