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US President Donald Trump has made a rare U-turn on Iran's World Cup participation.
The countries remain at loggerheads since the conflict broke out in February and extended to football with Amir Ghalenoei's Iran sealing a place at this summer's tournament.
Donald Trump makes rare U-turn on Iran's World Cup campaign
Iran made repeated appeals to FIFA to relocate their group games against New Zealand, Belgium and Egypt to fellow co-hosts Mexico due to the escalating tensions.
But world football's governing body turned down all requests, with its president Gianni Infantino insisting that the logistics of the schedule could not be altered at late notice.
There has, however, been a slight softening of relations with Trump now seemingly endorsing Iran's stay in the country ahead of the World Cup's big kick-off on 11 June.
Infantino told FIFA's annual Congress in Vancouver that the Middle East nation would fulfill its tournament duties in the US and insisted, 'There is no plan B, C or D - there is only plan A'.
The head of the global game's words were later relayed to Trump, who appeared to dial back on his previously volatile statements about Iran's World Cup arrival.
When asked about Infantino's remarks, Commander-in-Chief insisted to reporters, "Well if Gianni said it, I’m OK [with it]", before adding: "You know what, let them play.
"Gianni is fantastic, he’s a friend of mine, he talked about it, I said, ‘you do whatever you want’. You can have them, you don’t have to have them, they probably have a good team."
Iran kick off their fourth successive World Cup campaign on 16 June against New Zealand at Inglewood's SoFi Stadium, where they will also face Belgium on 21 June.
They will then move onto Seattle's Lumen Field for a group finale with Egypt on 27 June.
