By Daily Sports on February 10, 2018

The head of the Pyeongchang Olympics' organising committee has apologised to Iran after a diplomatic row broke out over commemorative Olympic smartphones.

Lee Hee-beom intervened after Iranians reacted with fury to news their team, along with the North Koreans, would not receive the special "Olympic Edition" Samsung Galaxy Note 8 handsets being given to all other competitors at the Games in South Korea.

Reports of the snub have resulted in the South Korean ambassador to Tehran being summoned to the Iranian foreign ministry. The Iranian prosecutor-general has also ordered that Samsung's boss in Iran be summoned for questioning, and on social media many tech-loving Iranians are now calling for a boycott of Samsung products.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has since clarified that Iranian athletes will receive the Samsung phones.

The row began two days before the opening ceremony when the Iranian team queued up at the Samsung stall at the Olympic complex to receive the commemorative phones.

According to the head of Iran's National Olympic Committee the team were sent away empty handed because "UN sanctions" banned the supply of luxury goods to Iran.

The incident made headlines in Iran, where both officials and ordinary Iranians saw it as a huge insult and something which could not go unanswered.

Bahram Ghassemi, a spokesman for the Iranian foreign minister, described the move as "immoral and against the Olympic spirit".

He said the South Korean ambassador had been told that unless Samsung apologised, trade relations with Iran would suffer.

A day later, Iran's prosecutor-general asked his deputy to summon Samsung's boss in Iran for questioning.

Samsung gave more than 4,000 special edition Note 8 devices to the IOC

It was also widely reported in the Iranian media that Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, was considering changing his own Samsung Galaxy S8 handset for a different model.

Source Daily Sports

Posted February 10, 2018

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