An unwelcome guest
The Iran World Cup saga took another twist over the weekend when the German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the government couldn’t stop Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from coming to Germany to cheer on his team. Cue outraged reaction from Germans, who aren’t too keen to welcome a Holocaust denier to their country. (Indeed, if ...
The Iran World Cup saga took another twist over the weekend when the German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble said the government couldn’t stop Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from coming to Germany to cheer on his team. Cue outraged reaction from Germans, who aren’t too keen to welcome a Holocaust denier to their country. (Indeed, if it wasn’t for head of state immunity he would find himself in the dock under Germany’s strict laws on denying the Holocaust).
This diplomatic nightmare seems to have been avoided with a statement from the Iranian Foreign Ministry saying that “it’s not on his agenda.” Not everyone will be happy about his absence, though. German neo-Nazis will be gutted at missing the opportunity to cheer on their new hero in person.
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