MOSCOW, March 4. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should clarify inconsistencies in its stance regarding Russian athletes and athletes from countries involved in the conflict in the Middle East concerning their participation in international competitions, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday.

The IOC announced on Tuesday that sports must remain a unifying force in a world shaken by conflicts, divisions and tragedies.

"I view this statement as the right stance to hold. I just don't understand why a different stance is applied to us [Russia] and Belarus. The IOC should clarify these discrepancies," Peskov said in an interview with Russian sports television channel Match TV.

On February 28, the US and Israel launched a military operation against Iran. The strikes targeted major Iranian cities, including Tehran. The White House justified the attack by citing missile and nuclear threats it said were emanating from Tehran. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a large-scale retaliatory operation, striking targets inside Israel.

US bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, the UAE and Saudi Arabia also came under attack. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and several other key figures of the Islamic republic’s leadership were killed.

IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to prohibit athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended allowing individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international sports tournaments, but only under specific conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.

On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.