Iran media denies athletes to compete alongside Israel at games

Bloomberg: Israeli media misquoted comments from the general secretary of Iran’s Olympic committee, saying Iranian athletes will compete alongside Israelis at the London 2012 Olympics, the state-run Fars news agency reported. Bloomberg

By Ladane Nasseri

Israeli media misquoted comments from the general secretary of Iran’s Olympic committee, saying Iranian athletes will compete alongside Israelis at the London 2012 Olympics, the state-run Fars news agency reported.

The Israeli media “maliciously changed Bahram Afsharzadeh’s words and sought to project comments from the general secretary of Iran’s Olympic committee as they like,” the report said.

“Afsharzadeh responded to journalists in the Olympic village, saying Iran respects the spirit of sports and Iranian sportsmen would not boycott matches because of the nationality of most participants,” Fars said, adding that Afsharzadeh hadn’t named Israel.

Iran doesn’t recognize Israel. Iranian athletes withdrew from events at the 2004 and 2008 games when paired against Israel.