An Iranian athlete on Friday refused to compete against Israeli taekwondo fighter Adnan Milad at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
The Iranian, Saeid Sadeghianpour, was a no-show to the match against Milad in the men’s under-63kg, handing the Israeli an automatic win.
Iran, which does not recognize Israel, has a longstanding policy of boycotting events featuring Israelis.
In 2012, Iranian athletes announced their intention to boycott competitions against Israelis at the London Olympics.
In 2017, two Iranian players were criticized in their home country after they appeared for their Greek club Panionios in a Europa League qualifier against Maccabi Tel Aviv.
The two were initially banned for life from the Iranian national team as a punishment, but Iran appeared to cancel the ban after a huge outcry from soccer fans on social media and the launch of an investigation by FIFA, which has rules against political interference in national teams.
In 2019, Iranian judoka Saeid Mollaei was forced to throw a match against Israelis, even after the International Judo Federation (IJF) and Iran reached an agreement which stipulates that Iran will no longer boycott competitions against Israelis.
Following the incident, the IJF imposed a four-year ban from international events on Iran.
Earlier this year, Iran's soccer federation asked FIFA, the governing body of world soccer, to suspend Israel due to its war in Gaza.
(Israel National News' North American desk is keeping you updated until the start of Shabbat in New York. The time posted automatically on all Israel National News articles, however, is Israeli time.)