Former Manager Of Iran's National Soccer Team Mohammad Mayeli-Kohan: If We Accept The U.N., We Cannot Call For The Destruction Of A 'Certain Country' That Is A U.N. Member State

Former Iranian national soccer team manager and player Mohammad Mayeli-Kohan was interviewed on the Big Campaign, an Iranian online TV show hosted by Karim Bagheri, who also used to be a member of the Iranian national soccer team. Mayeli-Kohan said that Iran cannot live by itself and that as a member of the United Nations, it must respect the other members states and cannot call for the destruction of a "certain country." The Iranian Athletes' Basij issued a condemnation of these statements. The show was uploaded to the internet on August 18, 2020.

Mohammad Mayeli-Kohan: "We cannot live all by ourselves in this world. Let me reiterate: We cannot live all by ourselves in this world. Do we or do we not accept the United Nations? Do we? Do we? Friends, do we accept the United Nations?"

Karim Bagheri: "Everybody does. How can you not accept it?"

Mayeli-Kohan: "No, no... Does our country accept the United Nations or not?

Bagheri: That much we don't know..."

Mayeli-Kohan: "So if we accept the United Nations, we must also accept its members. We cannot say that a certain country must be destroyed. If we accept the U.N, we cannot accept some things in it and reject other things."