Some Iranian soccer players granted asylum by Australia chose to return home, local official says

Three of the six Iranian women’s soccer players who accepted asylum in Australia are returning to Iran, according to Tina Kordrostami, a councilor for the Australian City of Ryde. 

Kordrostami told Fox News Channel’s “Fox Report With Jon Scott” Saturday that the three players are returning, calling it an “upsetting update,” but she could not discuss exact reasons why. 

“They are heavily intimidated and being communicated to directly by the regime,” Kordrostami said. 

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When asked if the players are being threatened, Kordrostami said, “I don’t think that, I know that.

“I know families have even been detained. I know family members are missing. One thing I really would like for people in the West to understand is that Iranians within the country have in many ways given up on the West, and they are only relying on one another to survive this regime. 

“So, when we do offer them a way out, it’s not often that easy for them to understand that it is in fact a way out. They are more so used to relying on one another and this is survival for them.”

Kordrostami added that the women who return face potential severe consequences. 

“We are very worried about them. We know for a fact that they will not be safe. I’ve mentioned this before. When you do break a contract as an athlete in Iran, you can face the death penalty. So, I know these women are young. I know that they are making an incredibly difficult decision, and I have the utmost respect for them,” she said.

“Coercion is being used here, intimidation tactics. And we even had an individual amongst the girls within Sydney and Brisbane who was influencing them constantly in their ear, letting them know that whatever Australia is offering them, it will not work.

The team arrived in Australia before Israel and the U.S. launched a joint offensive against Iran Feb. 28. The strikes led to the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

IRANIAN WOMEN’S SOCCER TEAM REFUSES TO SING NATIONAL ANTHEM IN SILENT PROTEST AT ASIAN CUP

Iranian players refused to sing their national anthem before an opening loss to South Korea March 2, which was viewed by some as an act of resistance described by an Iranian commentator as the “pinnacle of dishonor.”

Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke announced at a news conference Tuesday that another Iranian women’s soccer player and a team staffer had accepted asylum in Australia amid fear of punishment upon returning to Iran after five players accepted asylum on Sunday.

Burke added that almost all the Iranian players and many of the support staff were taken aside individually as they passed through Australian Customs at an airport before they boarded their flight back to Iran.

And they were each given the opportunity to accept an asylum offer without Iranian state officials present, but other players or staff accepted the offer to stay.

The asylum bids came amid increased pressure from President Donald Trump and Iranian groups in Australia.

“Australia is making a terrible humanitarian mistake by allowing the Iran National Woman’s Soccer team to be forced back to Iran, where they will most likely be killed. Don’t do it, Mr. Prime Minister, give ASYLUM. The U.S. will take them if you won’t,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Trump later wrote, “I just spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, of Australia, concerning the Iranian National Women’s Soccer Team.

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“He’s on it! Five have already been taken care of, and the rest are on their way. Some, however, feel they must go back because they are worried about the safety of their families, including threats to those family members if they don’t return. In any event, the Prime Minister is doing a very good job having to do with this rather delicate situation. God bless Australia!”

Iran head coach Marziyeh Jafari was quoted as saying on Australia’s national news agency that the team wants “to come back to Iran as soon as we can.”

Bill Maher presses Gov Josh Shapiro on Iran war, asks if ‘you would still do nothing?’

Comedian Bill Maher pressed Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro Friday over his opposition to U.S. involvement in Iran, challenging the Democrat on what he would do if he were commander in chief and had learned Iran would soon have nuclear weapons.

“Our chief negotiator said they were talking to Iran up until the war started. He said their opening salvo at the negotiations, ‘We’re a couple of weeks away from having 11 bombs,’” Maher said during the latest installment of “Real Time.” 

“If you were the president, and you got that information, you would still do nothing?” 

Shapiro quickly rejected the notion.

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“No. What I would do and what the president of the United States failed to do was be clear with the American people about what the hell we were doing here,” he said.

“Was the plan to go after the nuclear weapons? The weapons, by the way, he said were destroyed … seven months ago. Was the plan to go and do regime change? In which case, who the hell is going to take over? I don’t think the son [Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei] is any better than the father. Was the plan to go in there later, but you got forced because Netanyahu forced your hand?

“I think if you don’t have clarity about why you’re going in, you have no way of knowing how the hell to get out.”

PENTAGON POLICY CHIEF GRILLED AS DEM CLAIMS TRUMP BROKE PROMISE ABOUT GOING TO WAR WITH IRAN

Maher also pushed back on the Pennsylvania Democrat’s suggestion that the rationale for the war remains unclear.

“We’ve lost 13 American soldiers in a war that the American people and, by the way, most of the global community, has no idea why the hell we went there in the first place,” Shapiro said.

“I think people have an idea,” Maher countered.

FETTERMAN CONDEMNS DEMOCRATS FOR REFUSING TO PUT ‘COUNTRY OVER PARTY’ ON IRAN STRIKES

“What was the reason we went in?” Shapiro asked.

“Everything you said — the nukes, regime change and just to reshuffle the deck in the Middle East. Nothing ever really was going to get better until that regime went away,” Maher replied, prompting chuckles from the audience.

“But we’ll see what happens.”

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Shapiro noted that he was morally opposed to the Iranian regime’s actions that placed Americans in harm’s way, stating that he never viewed the late Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a “good person” and that he is “not shedding a tear” for regime members who were killed.  

“[The ayatollah] chanted, for five decades, ‘Death to America.’ These are people who blew up and killed Americans. These are not good people,” he said. 

“What I am saying, though, is, if you are the commander in chief, you have a responsibility to the people you send into harm’s way, a responsibility to the American people to explain why it is you’re doing what you’re doing and how the hell you get out of it once the mission is accomplished.

“The president has yet to look the American people in the eye and explain that, and that is a failure of leadership.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment on Shapiro’s statements but did not immediately hear back.