US says Iran players welcome at World Cup, distances itself from envoy’s Italy proposal

Iran’s footballers will be welcome at this year’s World Cup, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday, distancing the United States government from a proposal that Italy could take their place in the tournament.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Rubio denied that Washington had asked the Iranian team not to come to the World Cup, but warned that the US may yet bar entry to members of the Iranian delegation it judged to have ties to Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps...