IRNA - The 45th round of the Freestyle Wrestling World Cup started here in this western Iranian city on Thursday 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.

After the Jan 27 visa ban imposed by the US President Donald Trump on the nationals of seven Muslim countries including Iran, the Iranian Foreign Ministry responded to the order and stressed “reciprocal measures 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.

The decision was made after an American judge suspended the visa ban a few days after Trump’s order.