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Iran to Grant Visas to U.S. Wrestling Team, Reversing Previous Ban

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Iran's Komeil Nemat Ghasemi (blue) wrestles with USA's Tervel Ivaylov Dlagnev in their men's 125kg freestyle semi-final match on August 20, 2016, during the wrestling event of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro. / AFP / Jack GUEZ (Photo credit should read JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images)
Iran's Komeil Nemat Ghasemi (left) wrestles with USA's Tervel Ivaylov Dlagnev in their men's 125kg freestyle semi-final wrestling match during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Carioca Arena 2 in Rio de Janeiro on Aug. 20, 2016.Jack Guez—AFP/Getty Images
By Mahita Gajanan

Iran has said the U.S. wrestling team will be granted visas to compete at the 2017 Freestyle World Cup, after a U.S. federal judge temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order on immigration, foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi told the IRNA news agency.

The country reversed its previous decision to deny entry visas in response to Trump’s order, which banned travelers from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran. Iran’s foreign minister Javad Zarif said on Twitter that the court ruling, as well as requests from the Iranian Wrestling Federation and United World Wrestling, also know as FILA, had prompted the country to let the U.S. wrestlers into the country.

The wrestling competition is scheduled for Feb. 16 and 17.

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Write to Mahita Gajanan at mahita.gajanan@time.com