Al-Monitor- While Iran and the United States have been engaged in near constant hostility for the last 38 years, sport � especially wrestling � has been one of the few arenas where cultural diplomacy has flourished without the interruption of geopolitical tensions. That seems to be no more. In a tit for tat, on Feb. 3, Iran blocked American wrestlers from participating in the Freestyle World Cup competition after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27 for a 90-day ban on the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

After the Feb. 4 decision by US federal court Judge James Robart to temporarily suspend Trump�s ban, Tehran reversed its ban, announcing that the US wrestlers would be permitted to participate in the games in Kermanshah to be held Feb. 16-17.

Bahram Ghassemi, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that in addition to Robart�s ruling on the �discriminatory limitations against Iranian citizens� being a factor, the Iranian Wrestling Federation and the International Federation of Wrestling�had requested that Iran lift its ban on the US wrestlers. Iran�s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted news of the ban's reversal on Feb. 5.

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