While Iran and the United States have been engaged in near constant hostility for the last 38 years, sport — especially wrestling — has been one of the few arenas where cultural diplomacy has flourished without the interruption of geopolitical tensions. That seems to be no more. In a tit for tat, on Feb. 3, Iran blocked American wrestlers from participating in the Freestyle World Cup competition after US President Donald Trump signed an executive order Jan. 27 for a 90-day ban on the entry of citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries, including Iran.

After the Feb. 4 decision by US federal court Judge James Robart to temporarily suspend Trump’s ban, Tehran reversed its ban, announcing that the US wrestlers would be permitted to participate in the games in Kermanshah to be held Feb. 16-17.

Bahram Ghassemi, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, said that in addition to Robart’s ruling on the “discriminatory limitations against Iranian citizens” being a factor, the Iranian Wrestling Federation and the International Federation of Wrestling had requested that Iran lift its ban on the US wrestlers. Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted news of the ban's reversal on Feb. 5.

Iran’s archery team has also been caught up in Trump’s ban. Armin Raisi and Armin Pakzad were scheduled to travel to Las Vegas to participate in the 2017 Vegas Shoot, a prestigious indoor archery tournament, on Feb. 10-12, but according to Mohammadali Shojaei, the president of the Iran Archery Federation, the players have not been issued visas, so the team will thus not be able to participate in the championships. Shojaei made the announcement on the same day the ban on American wrestlers was reversed.