The 2019 Greco-Roman World Cup was slated to be held on Tehran on Nov. 28-29 but the United World Wrestling announced last Monday that the event has been ‘postponed’ until further notice. The body described security concerns in Iran as the main reason behind this decision.

Meanwhile, the Cuban Greco-Roman team had already entered Tehran on Monday and was scheduled to hold a joint camp with the Iranian team before participating in the World Cup. However, a few days after the announcement of UWW’s decision, Iranian teams coach Mohammad Bana shut down the training and sent players back to their homes.

The Iranian wrestling federation said that it has offered evidence of Iran’s safety to UWW, expressing hope that the event would be held in the coming days. However, UWW didn’t issue any statement to clarify the situation and only removed the event from its calendar on its website to raise speculations of total cancellation.

The federation hosted the Cuban team during the past week, even organizing some tours in Tehran for the team to get Cubans acquainted with some tourist sites and the Iranian culture.

“With the efforts of the National Olympic Committee, Iran’s Wrestling Federation and talks with President of Russian Wrestling Federation Mikhail Mamiashvili, and also contributions of Iranian Foreign Ministry and using capacities of Georgian, Japanese, and Russian envoys to Iran, the Greco-Roman World Cup host has been choosed as Tehran with a change in its date,” said the ministry.

The United World Wrestling announced on Sunday that the Greco-Roman World Cup, which was slated to take place in Tehran on Nov. 28-29, has been postponed till further notice, citing concerns over security situation as the reason behind the decision.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Wrestling Federation objected to the decision. “Everything is ready for an ideal hosting of the event; so I believe postponing the games is meaningless,” the federation’s spokesman Hassan Rangraz said on Monday in an interview with IRIB.

He said that the federation was trying to present the required clues and evidence to the international body to prove the country’s stable condition and its readiness to hold the event.

Also, President of Iran’s National Olympic Committee Reza Salehi Amiri officially protested to the decision in a letter to the president of the United World Wrestling (UWW) Nenad Lalović on Tuesday.

Rangraz said on Wednesday that “we will definitely host the World Cup but we are waiting to receive information [from UWW] about the exact date of the event.”