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PARIS - Exiled Iranian soccer players said on Tuesday that Tehran should not be allowed to use the country's presence at the World Cup to build diplomatic bridges.
Iran's World Cup campaign includes a match against arch-foe the United States in Lyon on June 21. Some analysts have drawn comparisons with the 1970s, when relations between Washington and Communist China were fostered by "Ping-Pong'' diplomacy involving an exchange of table-tennis teams.
"Such a perception with regard to the mullahs is fundamentally flawed,'' said Hassan Nayeb Agha, a member of the 1978 Iranian World Cup team. "Experience shows that...the mullahs are totally incapable of reform and can only survive through repression and the export of terrorism,'' he added.
He was speaking at a news conference organized by exiled opposition group the National Council of Resistance, which is based in France.
Iran's religious leadership described the country's qualification for the World Cup as a political victory for Islam over its enemies in the West. Washington brands Iran a "rogue state'' and has sought to isolate it with unilateral sanctions.
Nayeb Agha and fellow former Iranian soccer players Bahram Mavedat [member of the 1978 Iran's World Cup team] and Asghar Adibi [former member of National team] accused Tehran of executing former national team captain Habib Khabiri in 1984. They said he was executed along with 40 other Mujahideen members after being imprisoned on political grounds.
Mavedat accused the religious leadership of exploiting the World Cup for propaganda purposes, comparing it to the way Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler used the Berlin Olympic Games of 1936.
The Iranian players, who qualified for the World Cup with victory in a play-off over Australia last November, arrived in France on Monday. Their hotel near the town of Saint Etienne in eastern France has been closed off amid tight security.
"The players here are treated like prisoners,'' said Adibi, alleging that Iran had given its World Cup tickets to secret police officials who were shadowing the team's every move.
The former players accused Tehran of virtually destroying Iranian sport in the years after the 1979 revolution and only allowing soccer to develop again when they realized it was too popular to stamp out.
They said there could be an adverse public reaction if Iran flopped at the World Cup, and especially if it lost to the United States.
"The people will react to a defeat and it will have a political element to it. The Iranians know why their sport has gone into decline,'' said Mavedat.
MPs Gun For Khatami's Interior Minister, BBC World Service, June 10
The rift between political factions in the Iranian leadership is widening with a group of conservative members of parliament demanding the impeachment of the Interior Minister, Abdollah Nouri - one of the pillars of President Khatami's government.
The Interior Minister could face a parliamentary grilling by conservatives who accused him of using the media to create discord through "provocative interviews". The last time Nouri stood before parliament to answer questions on why he allowed an opposition group to hold a meeting, two MPs came to blows after a heated exchange.
At the same time, the conservatives have also attacked pro-Khatami newspapers. One newspaper, Gozaresh-e Ruz has suspended publication after running an investigative story about Iran's religious elite.
Iran Bans Newspaper in Latest Press Crackdown, Agence France Presse, June 10
TEHRAN - An Iranian court slapped a publication ban on a newspaper Wednesday in the latest backlash by the Islamic regime's powerful conservatives.
"Tehran public court today revoked the publication license of the daily Jameeh," Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
Jameeh was launched with the goal of supporting Khatami's agenda. But in recent weeks it has been the target of a barrage of criticism from fundamentalists and conservatives in the Islamic regime, accused of publishing tendentious and anti-Islamic articles.
Widespread Arrests Prior to Khamenei's Visit, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 10
On the eve of a visit by the regime's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, to the northern cities of Amol and Noshahr, the Revolutionary Guards and Intelligence Ministry agents have imposed a de facto state of siege on the two cities, according to reports from the area.
Contingents of Guards and elements of the Intelligence Ministry from Tehran have been stationed in the area since last week. The Guards have set up road blocks, increased mobile patrols and conducted house-to-house searches in various neighborhoods in order to terrorize the local population ahead of Khamenei's visit. Many former political prisoners in both cities have been arrested again.