War on Iran forces postponement of global sports conference in neighboring Azerbaijan

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — The war on Iran by the United States and Israel has forced the postponement of a global conference of Olympic and international sports officials in neighboring Azerbaijan.

The SportAccord conference was scheduled for May 24–28 in Baku which is about 560 kilometers (350 miles) from Tehran.

“Azerbaijan has proven itself to be a safe and reliable partner to sport’s stakeholders,” the country’s sports minister Farid Gayibov said on Thursday in a statement by Lausanne-based organizers of SportAccord, which pledged to announce new dates in Baku “in due course.”

The annual conference has traditionally been a forum for cities to lobby and campaign for Olympics and sports event hosting, but has been held just once since 2019.

It was canceled in recent years variously because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s full military invasion of Ukraine and the detention of Istanbul’s mayor by Turkish authorities.

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AP sports: https://apnews.com/hub/sports