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\n

DALLAS \u2014 Andrew Giuliani, President Donald Trump\u2019s point person on the 2026 World Cup, said allowing Iran\u2019s national team to enter the U.S. a day before its matches is an example of the administration being nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want them to be able to compete,\u201d Giuliani said in an interview Sunday in Dallas. \u201cEven just coming in the day before the match, I think is another example of the goodwill gesture to the team.\u201d He said 31 Iranian players and the team\u2019s coaches have received visas and that the arrangements \u201cshould not affect the integrity of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments come after Iran\u2019s ambassador to Mexico, Abolfazl Pasandideh, told Blue Light News<\/u><\/a> that Iran’s presence in the U.S. for the World Cup should be read as a positive gesture from his country, as Tehran and Washington inch toward an agreement on ending the war that began in late February.<\/p>\n

The Iranian team is traveling to the U.S. today from Tijuana, Mexico, where it moved its pre-tournament training camp from Tucson, Arizona, in light of the ongoing conflict between the U.S. and Iran. Giuliani described the move as the \u201cbest solution for all parties involved,\u201d noting that Tijuana remains a short flight from host cities including Los Angeles and Seattle, where Iran will play its group stage matches.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a discussion from the top of [the] U.S. government, and with FIFA as well,\u201d Giuliani said.The possibility of a politically charged matchup remains on the horizon: If the U.S. and Iran both place second in their respective groups, they will play each other on July 3 in the round of 32 in Dallas.<\/p>\n

While defending Trump\u2019s recent military actions against Iran, Giuliani also framed the tournament as a potential opportunity for sports diplomacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a great moment, I think, for freedom-loving Iranians [and] freedom-loving Iranian Americans to be able to celebrate their soccer team coming to the United States and enjoy that, and look for the freedoms that can exist in Iran, right?\u201d Giuliani said. \u201cThis can be one of those moments when you talk about sports diplomacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DALLAS \u2014 Andrew Giuliani, President Donald Trump\u2019s point person on the 2026 World Cup, said allowing Iran\u2019s national team to enter the U.S. a day before its matches is an example of the administration being nice. \u201cWe want them to be able to compete,\u201d Giuliani said in an interview Sunday in Dallas. \u201cEven just coming […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}