TEHRAN – Qatar Olympic Committee officials met Iran’s National Olympic Committee (NOC) president Reza Salehi Amiri on Sunday to discuss about 2030 Asian Games.

A 12-man delegation, headed by Qatar Olympic Committee secretary general Jassim Rashid Albuenain, traveled to Tehran in a one-day meeting to seek support for hosting rights of the 2030 Asian Games.

Dahlan Jumaan al-Hamad, President of the Asian Athletics Association (AAA), and Mohammed Yousef Al-Mana, President of Asian Weightlifting Federation, also attended the meeting to unveil their plans regarding the arrangements and facilities for the Games.

At the beginning of the meeting, the Qataris high-ranked delegation was welcomed by Iran’s NOC secretary general Keykavous Saeidi in NOC’s headquarters in Tehran.

Then, the delegation met with Salehi Amiri and discussed about expanding the relations in sports area.

“Iran-Qatar’s relations have always been based on mutual respect. Qatar is a good neighbor and we have to expand our sporting relations,” Salehi Amiri said.

“Two countries can hold the joint training camps because we’ve become preeminent in some sports and Qatar is also outstanding in some other sports. Iran is a four-season country and it helps two sides arrange training camps,” he added.

“Iran and Qatar will have to ink a Memorandum of Understanding to exchange coaches and share experience and knowledge,” Salehi Amiri stated.

Albuenain also said they are ready to host more tournaments since the country has good infrastructure.

“Qatar has a great experience to host sports events since we’ve hosted many tournaments in the previous years. The Emir of Qatar has backed us to host the Asian Games 2030 as well and we have to work together to promote our sports. We also welcome the signing a MoU with Iran on bilateral cooperation,” Albuenain said.

Qatar faces opposition from bitter political rival Saudi Arabia for the hosting rights of the 2030 Asian Games. 

The country has already staged the Asian Games in 2006 and is going to host the prestigious Games once again, while Saudi Arabia has never staged the Asian Games before.

The two rivals are also among the nations bidding for the Asian Football Confederation's 2027 Asian Cup.

Reporting by Masoud Hossein