TEHRAN, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- The Iranian government on Friday condemned the United States' decision not to issue visas to some members of the Iranian national wrestling team.
Ali Bahadori Jahromi, the spokesman of the Iranian government, tweeted that the change of U.S. administrations does not make any difference in Washington's "anti-people and illegal" approaches.
On Thursday, President of Iran's Wrestling Federation Alireza Dabir announced that the Iranian national team's trip to Texas state of the U.S. had been canceled.
In an email to his American counterpart Bruce Baumgartner, Dabir said six Iranian wrestlers' U.S. visa requests were denied despite having submitted the required documents.
The Iranian and American freestyle wrestling teams were scheduled to have matches on Feb. 12 at the formal invitation of the U.S. side.
The match was widely assumed to be part of sports diplomacy efforts to ease tensions between the two rivals. ■
