Football: Pulisic sinks Iran as US advances in World Cup duel

DOHA—Christian Pulisic fired the United States into the last 16 of the World Cup on Tuesday as the Americans downed Iran 1-0 in their politically charged grudge match.

Chelsea star Pulisic bundled home the do-or-die Group B game's only goal in 38 minutes to set up a second-round clash with Group A winners the Netherlands on Saturday.

The victory was no less than US coach Gregg Berhalter's youthful side deserved in what was only the third international football clash between the bitter ideological rivals.

The build-up to a pulsating showdown had been marked by steadily escalating tension, with Iran's Football Federation on Sunday demanding FIFA sanction US Soccer for posting a modified version of their country's flag on social media.

But despite an electrifying atmosphere at Doha's Al Thumama Stadium, Tuesday's game played out without controversy as the US avenged their 1998 World Cup defeat to Iran to send the Asian qualifiers crashing out of the tournament.

Iran's fans had roared their team onto the field at the start of the game amid a deafening cacophony of air horns and cheers from the crowd of 42,127.

But despite the intimidating reception, it was the Americans who looked more comfortable, quickly establishing their dominance.

US captain Tyler Adams and Juventus' Weston McKennie controlled proceedings in midfield to leave Iran struggling to gain foothold.

ATTACKING AMBITION

The US signaled their attacking ambition after only two minutes, Pulisic surging forward menacingly before being dispossessed.

That was a shape of things to come as they laid siege to the Iranian goal.

Valencia midfielder Yunus Musah shot over the bar and Pulisic just failed to get enough power on a header after a cross from Antonee Robinson.

Fullback Sergino Dest was a constant threat down the right flank for the Americans, whipping a crossover in the 17th minute that Iran goalkeeper Alireza Beiranvand could only parry.

After sustained US pressure, the breakthrough finally came in the 38th minute.

A brilliant crossfield pass from McKennie picked out Dest down the right. 

The AC Milan defender headed back across goal and Pulisic was on hand to bravely finish.

There was alarm for US fans with Pulisic needing sustained treatment after a heavy collision with Beiranvand but it was the Iranians and their noisy fans who were left winded by the goal.

The crowd instantly became more subdued and the US twice came close to doubling their lead before half-time.

Josh Sargent and Tim Weah combined well with a dazzling counter-attack but the final ball went astray.

Then in injury time, McKennie's sublime pass found Weah who finished brilliantly past Beiranvand only to be ruled just offside.

Knowing that an equalizer would send them into the second round, the Iranians stepped up the pressure in the second half.

But substitute Saman Ghoddos squandered two gilt-edged chances to get his team into the match, heading over from close range before blazing a shot over the bar on the 65th minute with the whole goal to aim at.

Saeid Ezatolahi curled a long-range shot over the bar soon afterward as the Americans continued to live dangerously.

Iran threatened again inside the final 10 minutes when Ali Karimi just failed to get on the end of a teasing cross by Ezatolahi.

A diving header from Morteza Pouraliganji whistled just wide in injury time and then Mehdi Taremi had calls for a penalty after a tangle with Cameron Carter Vickers waved away to leave American nerves jangling before their team hung on for a famous win.

Agence France-Presse

Iran bank manager fired for serving unveiled woman: media

TEHRAN, Iran - An Iranian bank manager who served an unveiled woman has been fired, local media reported on Sunday, as demonstrations triggered by the mandatory head covering rule shake the Islamic republic.

Women in the country of more than 80 million people are required to cover their heads, necks and hair, a law enforced by the country's morality police.

The September 16 death in morality police custody of Mahsa Amini, 22, for allegedly breaching the dress code rules, sparked nationwide demonstrations which authorities call "riots".

Mehr news agency reported that the bank manager in Qom province, near the capital Tehran, "had provided bank services on Thursday to an unveiled woman".

As a result he was "removed from his position by order of the governor," Mehr quoted deputy governor Ahmad Hajizadeh as saying.

Mehr said video of the unveiled woman "elicited a lot of reaction on social media".

In Iran most banks are state-controlled and Hajizadeh said it is the responsibility of managers in such institutions to implement the hijab law.

Dozens of people, mainly protesters but also members of the security forces, have been killed during the demonstrations, which Iran says are encouraged by its Western "enemies".

The hijab became mandatory four years after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the US-backed monarchy and established the Islamic Republic.

Later, with changing clothing norms, it became commonplace to see women in tight jeans and loose, colorful headscarves. 

But in July this year ultra-conservative President Ebrahim Raisi called for mobilization of "all state institutions to enforce the headscarf law".

Many women continued to bend the rules, however.

Agence France-Presse

Seoul officials on alert over heightened risk of US-Iran conflict

SEOUL — Seoul officials said Sunday they were cautiously watching escalating tensions between the US and Iran and staying vigilant about the possible repercussions here.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has launched a task force to evaluate the current situation in the Middle East and to discuss measures to protect Koreans living in the area, the officials said.


On Friday, the US confirmed that President Donald Trump had ordered the airstrike that killed Qassem Soleimani — the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and the second-most powerful man in Iran — which took place at Baghdad International Airport in Iraq. The attack has raised tensions between Washington and Tehran to new heights.

Presided over by Vice Foreign Minister Cho Se-young, the inaugural meeting of the task force was held Sunday morning.

Results of the meeting were reported to Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha, who directed the team to enhance the security of Korean citizens and businesses in the Middle East.

The ministry added that in coordination with the diplomatic offices in the region, it will maintain an emergency response system around the clock.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Iraqis celebrate football win against Iran as symbolic victory

Jubilant Iraqis celebrated a football win against Iran Thursday as a desperately needed morale boost for protesters who have rallied against the Baghdad government and its backers in Tehran.

The highly-anticipated match, which ended in a 2-1 victory for Iraq, was an uplifting end to a day that began with four demonstrators killed as they were hit by tear gas canisters in Baghdad.


Many of the expatriate Iraqi fans who streamed into the football stadium in the Jordanian capital Amman were dressed in black to honor the dead protesters or donned the medical masks demonstrators wear to protect them against tear gas.

In Baghdad’s Tahrir (Liberation) Square, the heart of the month-long grassroots movement that has claimed over 330 lives, activists watched the match on a giant screen after a day of clashes with riot police.

When Iran’s national anthem played before the match, they booed and chanted “Iran out, Baghdad will remain free” to the martial pounding of drums.

And when the Iraqi team scored their first goal at the ten-minute mark, they cheered in Amman as the cracking of fireworks echoed throughout Baghdad.


‘Clear message’

Iran and Iraq fought a 1980-1988 war and were rivals under former dictator Saddam Hussein, but the predominantly Shiite states grew close after he was ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.

More recently, however, Iraqi demonstrators have directed their ire at Iran for backing the government they want to bring down, accusing Tehran of economic and political meddling and overreach in Iraq.

Wearing the Iraqi team’s football jersey, Ahmed, a 26-year-old fan in Baghdad, said the sporting contest sent “an important message”.

It was a sentiment shared by Mustafa Abdullah, aged in his 40s and one of about 70,000 Iraqis living in Jordan, who came to the match carrying his national flag.

“Our most important objective is to send a clear message to all the Iraqi people — the Sunnis, the Shiites, the Kurds — that we reject the interference of Iran and its agents in our country,” he said.


“Iran and its agents are the cause of the woes that swept over Iraq after the fall” of Saddam in 2003, he told AFP.

“We came not only to support our team against Iran in the stadium but also to support our fellow demonstrators in their biggest contest — their revolt against Iran and injustice in Iraq.”

‘Heroes everywhere’

The match between the two football-mad nations was to have been played in the southern port city of Basra.

But FIFA said it had assessed “the current security situation in Iraq” and informed the local federation that upcoming matches “must be played on neutral ground”.

Jordanian security forces were deployed heavily around the stadium during the match, which coincided with a separate game pitting Jordan against Australia.

Hours before the match began, thousands of Iraqis streamed into the Amman football stadium, the country’s largest, benefiting from free entrance offered to them by their country’s football association.

They brandished Iraqi flags but were barred from carrying posters or protest signs into the arena.

“We came to fulfill our duties by, first, supporting our team, and second, expressing support to our brothers who rose up against corruption and injustice in Iraq,” said Nawras al-Mashhadani, an Iraqi living in Amman.

She said the match offered a temporary respite from the “scenes of bloodshed and fire” that usually come out of her home country.

Amjad Fahed, an Iraqi in his fifties, said he wanted Iraqis to “crush Iran on the football field”, as well as back home.


After the game, Arkan Najib, a famous veteran of Iraqi football, said the win had sent “a big message to the families of the martyrs and the heroes in Tahrir Square.”

Back in Baghdad, as the crowd celebrated, even Iranian-manufactured Saipa vehicles mostly as taxis in Iraq zipped around Tahrir flying Iraqi flags, the passengers inside chanting in support of Iraq’s national team.

“They made their people and their audience happy,” said Sara, 25, about the Iraqi squad.

“The team proves that we have heroes everywhere, not just in Tahrir square.”

source: sports.inquirer.net

Oil prices drop after Iran nuclear deal

BANGKOK – Oil prices sank Monday as a nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers made it more likely that the sanctions choking Iranian oil exports will eventually be lifted.

Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, was down $2.43 at $108.62 a barrel at midmorning Bangkok time in electronic trading on the ICE futures exchange in London.

Benchmark U.S. crude fell 85 cents to $93.99 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.


After marathon negotiations in Geneva, Iran on Sunday reached an agreement with the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany to limit enrichment of uranium to 5 percent, far below the level needed for nuclear weapons.

Iran got limited relief from sanctions that have hobbled its economy, but an embargo on its oil exports remains in place while negotiations continue for a more enduring deal to ensure the country only uses nuclear technology for peaceful purposes such as power generation.

If Iranian oil returns to international markets, the additional supply is likely to make crude less expensive.

Benchmark U.S. crude is down from about $110 in October because of ample supplies and muted demand.

In other energy futures trading on Nymex:

— Wholesale gasoline dropped 4.6 cents to $2.665 gallon.

— Heating oil shed 4.8 cents to $2.991 a gallon.

— Natural gas added 7.7 cents to $3.845 per 1,000 cubic feet.

source: business.inquirer.net

Iran’s Khamenei says Israel ‘doomed to collapse’

TEHRAN, Iran— Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday that arch-foe Israel is a regime “doomed to collapse,” escalating a war of words between the Islamic republic and the Jewish state.

“The (Israeli) Zionist regime is a regime whose pillars are extremely shaky and is doomed to collapse,” Khamenei told commanders of the hardline Basij militia force in Tehran.

“Any phenomenon that is created by force cannot endure,” he said in comments broadcast live on state television.

The remarks come at a time of strong criticism in Israel of efforts to strike a long-elusive deal between world powers and Iran on its controversial nuclear program.

Israel, the sole if undeclared nuclear armed state in the region, opposes a mooted deal.

The so-called P5+1 group of world powers and Iran are to resume talks in Geneva on Wednesday to seek an agreement that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called “dangerous.”

Khamenei rejected claims that Iran and its nuclear work posed a threat.

“The enemies of Iran sometimes and particularly the rabid dog of the region — the Zionist regime — malevolently claim that Iran is a threat to the entire world,” Khamenei said.

“No! The threat is the Zionist regime and some of its supporters,” he added angrily, as the Basij crowd burst into cries of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America”.

He also launched a verbal attack on Israeli leaders. “The title of human is not worthy of the leaders of the Zionist regime,” Khamenei added.

Khamenei warned against Israeli threats of possible military action against Iranian nuclear installations. “Our reaction to any aggressor is a slap in the face they will never forget,” he said.

source: newsinfo.inquirer.net

Clinton to press India to stop buying oil from Iran

KOLKATA — U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton landed in India on Sunday with hopes of reinvigorating a relationship seen as losing steam despite efforts to bring the world’s two largest democracies closer.

Clinton was greeted by streets lined with waving well-wishers as she started her visit in Kolkata, where she will tour monuments and meet ordinary citizens in her latest bid to use her star appeal as a diplomatic tool.

She heads on Monday to New Delhi for talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh with whom she is expected to raise U.S. calls for India to stop buying oil from Iran, one of the most open disagreements in years between the countries.

Clinton said she saw ample progress in relations with India, pointing to rising trade and cooperation in areas from education to clean energy.

“I think it’s like any relationship—there is progress in some areas that we are very heartened by, and there is more work to be done,” Clinton told reporters before her arrival.

“But that’s the commitment that we make when we say to another country, we want to be your partner,” she said.

After more than a decade of warming relations, India has bristled at a U.S. law that would impose sanctions on banks from countries that buy oil from Iran due to concerns over Tehran’s contested nuclear program.

A senior U.S. official traveling with Clinton acknowledged that India had quietly been cutting back on Iranian oil and that New Delhi—fiercely protective of its sovereignty—could not be seen as buckling under U.S. pressure.

“Our assessment is that India is making good progress but we really need to receive assurances that they’re going to continue to make good progress,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official said that Carlos Pascual, the U.S. point man on the issue, would visit New Delhi later this month to determine the next step. Only EU nations and Japan have so far been given exemptions to the sanctions which go into effect on June 28.

India is highly dependent on foreign energy and has historically enjoyed friendly relations with Tehran.

But the U.S. official said that Indian businesses had made “a major strategic bet” on continuing good relations with the United States and did not want to jeopardize them over Iran.

Clinton will meet Monday morning in Kolkata with West Bengal’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who took power last year by sweeping out nearly 35 years of communist rule in the eastern state.

Clinton will seek to show solidarity with a fellow female leader but also press Banerjee to back the opening up of India’s fast-growing retail sector to major foreign companies such as Walmart, the U.S. official said.

Banerjee, a fractious ally of Singh’s government, was instrumental in scuttling planned retail reforms. Critics charge that liberalizing the sector would devastate India’s ubiquitous small stores, but foreign retailers contend that they can improve efficiency and consumer choice.

US businesses, once at the vanguard of building ties with India, have voiced disappointment over the deadlock on retail reform along with parliament’s refusal to give US nuclear firms greater protection from liabilities.

Nuclear energy had been a symbolic milestone in the relationship, with former President George W Bush championing a deal that ended India’s decades of isolation over its nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

President Barack Obama has backed another of India’s longtime ambitions by supporting its bid for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council. But few expect U.N. reform anytime soon and some Indians have accused the Obama administration of a lack of attention.

T.P. Sreenivasan, a former Indian ambassador to the United Nations, said that the initial expectations for the U.S.-India relationship had not been met but that Clinton had the advantage of being considered a friend of New Delhi.

The visit “comes at a useful time as there is a certain amount of strain in relations that needs to be rectified,” he said.

“The relationship has lost momentum partly because… both are preoccupied with their own internal problems,” he said.

source: japantoday.com