Iranian squad at final stage of Freestyle Wrestling World Cup

The Iranian squad managed to defeat its Mongolian rival 7-1 to reach the final stage.

The prestigious competition started in Kermanshah on Thursday (Feb 16) with a match between Iranian and Turkish wrestlers.

Eight top world wrestling teams including Iran, Russia, US, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Mongolia and India have attended the two-day international event.

Iran Foreig Ministry announced on February 5 that it has decided to grant visa to the US wrestlers after an American judge suspended the visa ban imposed by the US President Donald Trump on seven Muslim countries including Iran, and after requests from the International Wrestling Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran Wrestling Federation.

After the Jan 27 visa ban imposed by the US president, Iran's Foreign Ministry responded to the order by stressing that “reciprocal measures' will be taken '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.”

However, on Feb 5, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced that visas will be granted to American wrestlers to travel to Iran to attend the 2017 Freestyle World Cup.

'Following the court ruling suspending Muslim ban and the requests from Iranian Wrestling Federation and FILA, US Wrestlers' visa will be granted,' Zarif tweeted.

The United World Wrestling hailed Tehran's move sayin in a statement on February 14 that the 'wrestling diplomacy' has finally brought the US wrestling team’ to Iran after weeks of disputes between the Iranian and US government led by the US President Donald Trump's visa ban.

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