By Micah Halpern
I've Been Thinking:
The FIVB, which is the International Federation of Volley, is holding a competition in Tehran, Iran.
On Friday Iran defeated the United States in three sets. The scores were 25-19, 29-27 and 25-20.
The US and Iran are set to face off again on Sunday.
Participation in this competition demonstrates a significant change in US policy. It signals the thawing of relations and the end of sanctions. One of the most obvious and easy to comply with dimensions of sanctions is involvement - or absence thereof - in international sports.
In this case not only Is Iran involved, they are hosting and the US is participating in the volley championship in Teheran much as they would were it to be held almost everywhere else in the world.
I am not shocked by this - actually it was to be expected. The only unrealized issue is: what will this lead to.
The obvious answer is normalization of diplomatic relations- bringing Iran in out of the doghouse. This is one of the objectives of international sports. The idea is that conflicts are about politics and leaders while sports are about people.
Athletes are supposed to put politics aside and deal only with the sport and the competition. Sometimes that is harder to do than at other times. This is one of those other times.
Micah@MicahHalpern.com
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