They were intended to demonstrate that the Islamic world could overcome its differences through sport.
Instead the Islamic Solidarity Games in Iran have fallen victim to a decades-old territorial dispute and been cancelled.
The row stems from Tehran’s design for the medals. Engraved alongside an outline of Iran, the medals carry the words “Persian Gulf” to denote the body of water separating the country from the Arabian Peninsula. Control and ownership of the stretch of water has long been a source of friction between Iran and its neighbours.
Saudi Arabia and other nations in the region objected to the wording, which also appeared on Iran’s promotional materials for the event. When the medal designs first appeared last year, Iran was asked to change the wording first to “Arabian Gulf”, and then simply to “Gulf”.
However Tehran refused both requests to alter the design. In the hope of breaking the deadlock the Games were postponed from October last year to April, but with the opening ceremony in Tehran’s 100,000-seater Azadi Sport Complex just weeks away, the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, which organises the event, has decided that Iran has breached the spirit of the games by politicising them and abandoned the competition.
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“The Federation regrettably declares the cancellation of the games in Iran because the organisers did not comply with the rules of Games and the Federation’s bylaws,” said a statement from the Riyadh-based organisation.
The inaugural Islamic Games was held in Saudi Arabia in 2005. Tehran was initially seen as an ideal venue for this year’s second instalment of the event, with its Shia interpretation of Islam counterbalancing the Sunni and Arab culture of the initial tournament. The Games were originally envisaged as a showcase for sport’s ability to unify nations and overcome political diferences. Around 7,000 athletes from 57 countries were scheduled to take part in a host of events, including track and field, swimming, football, weightlifting, table tennis and martial arts.
Female athletes would have been allowed to compete at the cancelled Games for the first time. Although held in separate venues with male spectators barred, the women’s events were to have been televised live. Several events for the disabled were also scheduled, including wheelchair basketball and football.
Officials from the Saudi-based Organisation of the Islamic Conference, which helps co-ordinate events among Muslim nations including the Games, said yesterday that it was unfair on the athletes that the event had been cancelled and accused Tehran of deliberate provocation by refusing to change the medal designs.
Iran’s foreign ministry declined to comment, though the pro-government Mehr News Agency in Tehran insisted the medals were engraved with the “historically acknowledged name of Persian Gulf”.
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Although Persian Gulf is the internationally accepted name for the channel, the issue remains a sensitive one. Since the rise of Arab nationalism in the 1960s, and the discovery of oil and gas, some countries on the peninsula including Iran’s great rival Saudi Arabia, have claimed the Gulf as their own.