(JTA) — The International Judo Federation said it had reached an agreement with Iran to end its athletes’ boycott of Israelis in competitions.
On Saturday, the federation posted a letter on its website in which Iran’s National Olympic Committe said it would “fully respect the Olympic Charter and its non-discrimination principle.”
Neither the statement by the International Judo Federation nor the Iranian letter mentioned Israel, but an analysis posted Sunday on the federation site said that “the context is clear.”
“In a historic breakthrough, the International Judo Federation announced that for Iran’s judo athletes the boycotts would be no more,” the article said.
Iranian judokas have forfeited matches against Israelis for decades.
Iran does not recognize Israel as a country and its leaders at various times have called for its destruction. Earlier this year, Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said Iran had no intentions of destroying Israel, but the Jewish state would end up destroying itself.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
