Iran’s national soccer team faces retaliation in the Islamic Republic after failing in Tuesday’s clash against the United States, experts told The Post.
Former CIA covert operations officer Mike Baker said Iranian players are stuck in an “untenable situation” after Very interesting match against the United Stateswhich defeated Iran 1-0 to advance to the round of sixteen.
“Given what we’ve seen from the Iranian regime … they’ve shown themselves to be brutal and there’s no reason to think they’ll suddenly become rational,” Baker said.
In their opening match against England last week, Iran’s players refused to sing their national anthem in apparent protest The death of Mohsa Amini, 22 years oldwho was allegedly beaten into police custody for failing to wear a headscarf properly in September.
Baker said that although Iran’s players sang their national anthem on Tuesday, a victory over the United States would have helped mitigate their previous transgression.
“The regime was going to use it for its own purposes,” Baker told the newspaper. “They would spend all of their focus on victory, defeating the ‘Great Satan’ or whatever clever phrases they came up with.”
on Monday, CNN reported that the families of the Iranian national team were threatened with imprisonment and torture if the players failed to “behave” before their match against the United States. The report added that the Iranian players were forced to meet with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard after demonstrating before the England match.
Elnaz Rekoi, an Iranian rock climber, is said to be under house arrest in her home country for competing abroad in October without a mandatory veil – which many saw as a gesture of support for Amini. Rekabi, 33, was threatened with seizing her family’s property unless she made a “forced apology”, Based on the reports.
Now, the Iranian team could face fines or even arrest in the wake of Tuesday’s defeat once they get home — as revenge for their disloyalty and failure to defeat the enemy, Al-Baker said.
“There is nothing good if you are an Iranian player when you come home,” he added.
Iranian players have experienced an “enormous amount of pressure” ahead of the game, including criticism from protesters in Iran who believe they haven’t been vocal enough against the system, according to Baker, who now works as an executive at Portman Square Group, a global firm. intelligence company.
Iran has seen angry anti-government protests since Amini’s death. As of Monday, 451 demonstrators had been killed during clashes with the authorities, including 64 children. According to the nonprofit group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Iran’s ruling clerics are uniquely focused on ending the rampant unrest that has raged in 157 cities across the country since mid-September.
Baker said Iranian players could withdraw to other countries, although that is unlikely because leaving relatives would be particularly difficult.
“It’s hard to put ourselves in this position,” he continued. “You’re putting your family and friends at risk when you do that, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of players were thinking about it.”
Kenneth R. Timmerman, an author and expert on Iran, said the fate of the Iranian players had already been decided before Tuesday’s game, “because they had already committed that sin” of not singing the national anthem.
“I would be afraid of arrest,” Timmerman said. “Even if they had won, they would have been arrested, beaten hard, and warned, ‘Never do this again.'”
Fatemeh Aman, a fellow at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think tank, said she didn’t think the Iranian team would face any kind of punishment after Tuesday’s loss. That might be different if one or two players refuse to sing the national anthem before the US game, but she believes the team’s unity, all singing together, will protect them.
“You can’t arrest the whole squad at the same time, you can’t do that,” said Aman.
However, if any one player is deemed a supporter of the demonstrations in Iran, they could see their passport confiscated or face possible fines, according to Aman.
“I think the Iranians feel sorry for them,” Aman said of the national team. “They’re in a really difficult situation, a really bad situation.”
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