The decision was announced during a meeting of Iran’s World Cup Cultural Committee, chaired by Hojjatoleslam Hassan Khani, deputy for cultural affairs and the development of public sports.

The session focused on promoting Iran’s culture, history, and national identity to the international community.

The United States and Israel waged a war of aggression against Iran on February 28, killing 168 school children in an attack on Shajareh Tayyebeh School of Minab on the first day of the war.

Hassan Khani said the national team would attend the tournament under the name “Minab 168,” highlighting its symbolic importance.

“The sorrow of the students of Minab school is a great sorrow, and certainly we must keep alive the memory of the martyred students of Minab and the crime of the Zionist regime and America in sports arenas,” he said.

He described football as a tool for public vitality and noted that people and officials support the national team.

“So that this team can, in continuation of Iran’s victory in the field of war and negotiation, also defend the sacred flag of the Islamic Republic of Iran on the football field,” he added.

Hassan Khani also described the World Cup as an “unparalleled capacity” and stressed the need to use its high promotional potential and ensure a strong presence.