MOSCOW, March 11. /TASS/. The Iranian national football team will skip the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Iranian Sports Minister Ahmad Donyamali said on Thursday.

"Given the fact that their government [the United States] assassinated our supreme leader, we will not participate in the World Championship under the existing circumstances," Donyamali said in an interview with TV2 television broadcaster.

The 2026 FIFA World Cup will be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States between June 11 and July 19. The matches will be staged in 16 cities across the three countries. This will be the first FIFA World Cup featuring 48 teams instead of the previous 32-team format.

The Iranian football team qualified for the 2026 FIFA World Cup and following the Draw was placed in Group G alongside the teams from Belgium, Egypt and New Zealand. Iran was scheduled to play all of its three group stage matches in the United States.

Earlier in the day, FIFA President Gianni Infantino stated that he met with US President Donald Trump on Tuesday night and the US leader welcomed the participation of the Iranian national football team at the major football championship this summer.

"I met with the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump to discuss the status of preparations for the upcoming FIFA World Cup, and the growing excitement as we are set to kick off in just 93 days," Infantino stated in his page on Instagram (banned in Russia as it’s owned by Meta Corporation, which is designated as an extremist organization in Russia).

"We also spoke about the current situation in Iran, and the fact that the Iranian team has qualified to participate in the FIFA World Cup 2026. During the discussions, President Trump reiterated that the Iranian team is, of course, welcome to compete in the tournament in the United States," the FIFA chief continued.

"We all need an event like the FIFA World Cup to bring people together now more than ever, and I sincerely thank the President of the United States for his support, as it shows once again that Football Unites the World," Infantino added.

The United States and Israel launched a military operation against Iran on February 28. Major Iranian cities, including Tehran, were struck. The White House justified the attack by citing alleged missile and nuclear threats from Iran.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced a retaliatory operation, targeting sites in Israel. US military bases in Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were also hit. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and some other key Iranian leaders were killed in the joint US-Israeli attack.