Iran taekwondo athlete quits tournament to avoid Israeli rival
An Iranian taekwondo athlete withdrew from the world under 21 championships in Kenya after the competition draw placed her against an Israeli opponent in the first round.
An Iranian taekwondo athlete withdrew from the world under 21 championships in Kenya after the competition draw placed her against an Israeli opponent in the first round.
Rozhan Goudarzi, who won a bronze medal last month in the women’s under 51 kilogram category at the Islamic Solidarity Games in Riyadh, pulled out in line with Iran’s long standing policy that bars its athletes from competing against Israelis.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei repeated in a speech last year that athletes must not face Israeli opponents and called on sports bodies to compensate those who withdraw, describing such decisions as a “sacrifice” for national and religious ideals.
He said “we must not neglect the well being of this athlete,” urging officials to support competitors who refuse to take part.
The policy has been in place since 1979 and has led to athletes forfeiting matches or intentionally losing to avoid Israeli rivals. Authorities have punished athletes who violate it, including a lifetime ban issued against a weightlifter who shook hands with an Israeli competitor at an event in Poland.
Rights groups and sports analysts say the stance has contributed to a rise in Iranian athletes leaving the country in recent years, with several competing abroad under new flags or joining the International Olympic Committee’s Refugee Team.
MuddyWater, also known as Mango Sandstorm or TA450, has links to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and National Security and has targeted government and infrastructure in the Middle East and beyond since at least 2017.
Researchers said victims in Israel included technology, engineering, manufacturing, local government and education sectors. They said the group used new custom tools to improve its ability to hide and stay active inside networks, including a backdoor called MuddyViper that can gather system data, run commands, move files and steal Windows credentials and browser data.
The report said the attackers used Fooder, a loader that reflects malware into memory and at times imitates the classic Snake game, to deploy MuddyViper. It said the group also used several credential stealers and avoided interactive sessions to reduce detection.
Researchers said the campaign relied on spearphishing emails that sent victims to installers for remote monitoring tools hosted on free file sharing sites. They said the operators used a range of malware, including VAX One, which imitates products such as Veeam and AnyDesk.
Past MuddyWater operations include attacks in Saudi Arabia and campaigns that overlapped with Lyceum, suggesting the group may serve as an initial access broker for other Iran linked actors.
