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Iran has banned a 15-year-old boy from playing with its national chess team and in domestic tournaments because he competed against an Israeli.

Borna Derakhshani faced off against Israels Alexander Huzman in the first round of the Gibraltar Chess Festival, which took place from January 23 to February 2.

Huzman defeated the Iranian, but the head of Irans chess foundation, Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, compounded Derakhshanis loss by imposing the ban on Monday.

Unfortunately, what shouldnt have happened has happened. Our national interests have priority over everything, Pahlevanzadeh said. He added that those who infringe upon Irans ideals and principles would be shown no leniency.

Iran does not recognize the State of Israel and forbids its athletes from competing against Israelis. In the past, Iranians have cited illnesses or injury to avoid facing Israeli opponents.

Last year, an Iranian chess grandmaster withdrew from a match against an Israeli at a Basel tournament in order to reject the existence of the Zionist state.

But pulling out from competition has its risks. In 2011, one Iranian chess player was expelled from a tournament in Corsica after refusing to play against an Israeli.

Politics has no place in competition at this level, the tournament organizer stated at the time.

Borna is not the only Derakhshani sibling to face trouble with the Iranian chess foundation. His sister Dorsa was also banned from representing the country with the national team and from competing in domestic tournaments for not wearing a hijab head covering while competing at the same Gibraltar tournament.

To save face, the countrys chess foundation chief said the siblings were not actually representing Iran at the tournament, but rather had attended independently.

Darya Safai, an Iranian exile and gender equality advocate, took to social media to defend the Derakhshani siblings, calling the two national heroes in separate posts.

Iran is currently hosting the 2017 womens world chess championship in Tehran, but the competition has been clouded by criticism and boycott calls due to its requirement that all women wear a hijab.

Along with several other players, US champion Naz Paikidze has boycotted the tournament, saying, I will not wear a hijab and support womens oppression. Even if it means missing one of the most important competitions of my career.

Still, not all competitors agree with Paikidzes stance. Iranian grandmaster and 2015 Asian Continental Championship winner Mitra Hejazipour said that boycotts would undermine a hard-fought campaign to promote female sports in Iran.

Its not right to call for a boycott. These games are important for women in Iran; its an opportunity for us to show our strength, she said.

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Iran bans teen chess player for competing against an Israeli - The Times of Israel

Iran has banned private drones from flying above the capital of Tehran over security fears.

At least two drones were shot down in recent weeks as they flew near sensitive areas.

Now, licences will only be granted to "relevant bodies and not individuals".

"These quadcopters are equipped with cameras and can fly over sensitive sites, film them and be exploited by the enemy," said Ali RezaRabi'i,deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC).

Drone captures SpaceX rocket landing in Florida

As such, drones equipped with cameras can "pose a threat," he toldthe Tasnim news agency.

In December, a drone owned by Iranian state TV was shot down after entering a no-fly zone near the offices of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The drone was said to have been filming for a documentary.

Last month, anti-aircraft cannons fired at an anotherdrone, footage of which was shared on social media.

The air defence system failed to destroy the unidentified drone.

Mr Rabi'i said drones equipped with cameras had led to privacy complains after they flew over some people's homes.

He said dronepermits wouldnot be given to individuals.

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Iran bans private drones above capital Tehran over security fears - The Independent

Chess. (photo credit:INGIMAGE)

Two Iranian chess players have been banned from the Iranian National Chess Team, as well as domestic chess tournaments, one for playing a chess match against an Israeli and the other for not wearing a hijab at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, Radio Free Europe reported.

It was not immediately clear whether the dismissed players, siblings 18-year-old Dorsa Derakhshani and 15-year-old Borna Derakhashani, would face legal prosecution back home in Iran.

Iran forbids athletes from competing against Israelis in sporting events; often players will feign illness or injury to avoid matches.

Iranian law dictates that all women are obligated to wear the Islamic hijab head covering. Infractions, known as 'bad hijab,' are commonly met with prison sentences and/or corporal punishments such as lashings. This law is extended to Iranians considered to be ambassadors of their country such as sports players and other dignitaries.

Multiple players have decided to boycott the Women's World Chess Championship 2017, which is set to be held in Tehran, due to Islamic dress codes, women's rights issues and risks to certain foreign nationals in the country.

Morality police in Iran usually detain women on the street for wearing bright clothes, a loose hijab or make-up, and men for "unacceptable" hair and clothing styles. They have sealed off barber shops for giving Western haircuts and cafes in which boys and girls were not observing Islamic law.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani came to office in 2013 mainly on the votes of young people, and he has disagreed with strict Islamic rules. Many young Iranians hoped that his presidency would be accompanied by an easing of cultural restrictions.

But hardliners have moved to block any relaxation of the Islamic Republic's social rules, warning of the "infiltration" of Western culture. They harshly criticized Rouhani last year for saying the police should enforce the law rather than Islam.

In 2014, he said "you can't send people to heaven by the whip," a comment that brought a reaction from the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

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Iran bans chess players for 'bad hijab,' match against Israeli - Jerusalem Post Israel News

One of the most powerful leaders in the Salafist movement in Egypt often holds court in his well-appointed apartment in Alexandria. On a recent December evening, the sun was about to set outside his window over the massive billboard of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the neighborhood of dilapidated and congested streets known as home to many of the countrys influential Salafist voices.

The Salafis are Islamists who yearn to practice the faith the way they think it existed at the time of the prophet Muhammad, 1,400 years ago. They are nearly the only Islamists in Egypt who are neither dead nor in prison, in large part due to their shared views with el-Sisinot least among them the belief that Shia Muslims have deviated from Islamic tradition and are attempting to convert Sunni Egyptians to follow in their footsteps.

Inside one of the neighborhood apartment buildings, I met Abdel Moneim el-Shahat, a Salafist leader who has been at the forefront of a campaign in Egypt aimed at keeping Shia Muslims out of the country and confronting those Sunnis, particularly the youth, who dare to convert to Shiism. I traveled to Egypt to meet Salafis, like el-Shahat, to show how the Shia-Sunni divide has reached even a country where less than 1 percent of the population is Shia, according to statistics from the U.S. State Department. The sectarian conflict in the Middle Eastmost acute in Iraq and Syriahas now reached all corners, even in the most unlikely of places.

Over four years, I have researched the contours of Islams sectarian conflictfrom the ground to the Twittersphereto try to understand the causes. A few regional trends are clear: the Salafi leader tweeting in Saudi Arabia with fourteen million Twitter followers clearly shapes the views of someone like Shahat, whom he does not know. The wars in Syria and Iraqperceived to be driven by Shia Irans hegemonic ambitions in the Arab worldalso frame the narrative the Sunnis throughout the region use to bolster their argument that if the Islamic Republic of Iran had its way, the government would rule every Sunni-dominated Arab country. This fear has reached new heights in recent years, after Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guards, the most militant part of the states security apparatus, became heavily involved in Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

The Dawa Salafiyya, a particular trend in the movement that opposes violence, has taken up the issue of the Shia to deal with religious minorities in Islam and outside Islam that have deviated from the tradition, explained el-Shahat, who, at first glance appears a bit frightening with his long beard and stocky frame, but is actually an affable man. For Iran, the religious and political perspectives are one in the same. They want to create their [Persian] empire again and that means spreading Shiism. Its

The commonly accepted view holds that rising sectarian tensions in general, and those between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia in particular, are driven primarily, or even solely, by political and geopolitical interests and concerns. As a result, the crucial religious component is downplayed or dismissed outright, leaving Western policymakers ill-equipped to respond to local and regional crises in any constructive way.

Yet this consensus flies in the face of my own experience working, living and traveling in the region over the past thirty years. Rather, the Sunnis see the Shias primary motivation as tied directly to their theology, and that any political gain in the process is an added bonus. This is the widespread belief among Sunnis across the Middle East, from Syria and Lebanon to Yemen. This point is well documented in my recent book, published in December: The New Sectarianism: The Arab Uprisings and the Shia-Sunni Divide (Oxford University Press).

Although the Shia-Sunni divide has persisted for centuries, the Arab uprisings dramatically escalated the conflict for several reasons.

First and foremost, religious identity has become more relevant to Arabs than in recent decades. The notion of citizenshipbeing an Iraqi or a Syrianbecame less important, due in part to the virtual collapse of states and governments. Second, the political leadership of Shia Iran and its Sunni neighbors, chiefly Saudi Arabia, have openly fanned the flames of sectarian rivalry in their pursuit of power and territory.

In addition, instability and polarization in the region breed a lack of religious freedom. And in a country like Egypt, all freedoms have been curtailed since the uprisings began, the first of which occurred in January 2011 and led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

In this sense, the Shia community illustrates the nature of the barriers to the exercise of freedom of religion and belief more generally, for other sects, the wider citizenry, and even the Sunni majority itself, wrote Amr Ezzat, who has been studying the problem in Egypt for the last few years. It also sheds light on the problematic issue of diversity within Islam, especially in the case of the Sunni-Shia divide, which is a special case of intra-Islamic diversity because it is linked to disputes over models of (religious) authority and their legitimacy.

In Egypt, the Salafis and religious scholars at Al Azhar, a 1,100-year-old university complex and mosque and the historic seat of learning for Sunni Islam, share the belief that there is a Shia threat. Azhari scholars are considered among the most authoritative on religious matters. But some differ over whether the Shia are real Muslims.

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Why Iran's Shia Threat Is Very Real for Faraway Egyptians - The National Interest Online

The Hill

The rising risk of showdown between Trump and Iran BBC News Are the US and Iran heading for a new confrontation? After a turbulent first three weeks in which President Donald Trump described Iran as "the world's number one terrorist state" and put it "on notice", it is a question many are asking. For Iranians ... Senators eye new sanctions against IranThe Hill Iran's Foreign Minister: Threats Do Not Work Against Iran, We Respond to RespectNBCNews.com Iran dismisses new US pressure, calls for 'mutual respect'ABC News The Globe and Mail -Reuters all 173 news articles »

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The rising risk of showdown between Trump and Iran - BBC News