WASHINGTON, June 2 - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told lawmakers on Tuesday that the United States will not permit individuals with ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to embed themselves within Iran's World Cup delegation for the tournament that begins this month.
Rubio said the Iranian national team will play matches in the United States but will be headquartered in Mexico for the duration of the competition. He emphasized that Washington had "no problem" with the Iranian soccer team and its support staff entering the country, despite the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran in late February.
At a House of Representatives committee hearing, Rubio described the U.S. position on delegation composition, stating: "What we7re not going to allow is for them to embed in their delegation a bunch of people that we know have nothing to do with athletics and have ties to the IRGC or things of that nature, so we were going to watch that very closely."
The remarks underscore a posture of permitting the athletic contingent to participate in matches on U.S. soil while applying scrutiny to the non-athletic members of the delegation. The official comment framed the U.S. approach as one of close monitoring to prevent individuals unaffiliated with sports from gaining entry under cover of the team delegation.
The announcement clarifies that entry will be granted to the team and support staff, with interdiction focused on those who are not involved in athletics and who are known to have IRGC ties. Rubio7s comments were made in a congressional hearing setting, where questions about border controls, visas and security vetting for high-profile international events are commonly directed toward executive-branch officials.
No additional procedural details about how the monitoring or vetting would be conducted were provided in the remarks. The statement confined itself to the declaration of intent to watch delegation membership closely and to prevent IRGC-linked individuals from embedding in the sports delegation.