Iranian team pulls out from Paralympics / Iransk lag trakk seg fra Paralympics

福牛乐乐 (Fu Niu Lele), the mascot of the 2008 Paralympics.

Source: Siste.no.

Hmm.

Iransk lag trakk seg fra Paralympics

Iranian team pulls out from Paralympics

Beijing (ANB-NTB):

Irans mannlige rullestolbasketlag trakk seg lørdag fra kvartfinaleoppgjøret mot USA i Paralympics.

The Iranian men's wheelchair basketball team withdrew Saturday from the quarterfinal match against the United States in the Paralympics.

Publisert 13.09.2008 - 13:38 Oppdatert 13.09.2008 - 13:41

Published 13.09.2008 - 13:38 Updated 13.09.2008 - 13:41

Ingen grunn ble oppgitt, men flere medier spekulerer i at muligheten til å møte Israel i semifinalen kan være årsaken.

No reason was given, but several in the media speculate that the possibility of facing Israel in the semifinal could be the reason.

Iran anerkjenner ikke staten Israel, og de to nasjonene samarbeider ikke på noe diplomatisk nivå.

Iran does not recognize the state of Israel, and the two nations do not cooperate on any diplomatic level.

Under OL i Beijing i august uteble en utøver fra Iran fra en svømmekonkurranse der også en israeler skulle ha deltatt. Den iranske svømmeren påsto den gang at det ikke hadde noe med forholdet til Israel å gjøre, men at han rett og slett var syk.

During the Olympics in August an athlete from Iran withdrew from a swimming match also in which an Israeli was to have taken part. The Iranian swimmer claimed at the time that it had nothing to do with Israel, but that he was simply sick.