The IJF decision follows a protective suspension imposed on the Iran Judo Federation on Sept. 18 for putting pressure on one of its fighters to withdraw from the world judo championships to avoid having to face an Israeli opponent.

The ban extends to all competitions, administrative and social activities organized or authorized by the IJF and its unions. Iran has 21 days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, the IJF said in a statement.

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Saeid Mollaei was pressured by Iranian authorities to drop out of his quarter-final and semi-final bouts at the Aug. 25-Sept. 1 world titles in Tokyo to avoid a potential final with Israel's Sagi Muki, the IJF said.

The 2018 world champion, who is in hiding in Germany, has refused to return to Iran over fears for his safety after ignoring the orders from its National Olympic Committee and government.

The Iran Judo Federation has denied instructing Mollaei to withdraw from competing, saying that his statements were false and made to "speed up his change of nationality process."

Although Iran has never won an Olympic medal in judo, they were viewed as strong contenders in Tokyo 2020. However, the ban puts a question mark over their participation because qualifying depends mainly on world ranking points earned in IJF events.

This is not the first time athletes from Arab nations or Iran have been told to pull out or refuse to compete with Israeli competitors in Olympics or other international events.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics, then Iranian world champion Arash Miresmaeili refused to fight Israeli judoka Ehud Vaks, earning praise back home.

At Rio de Janeiro in 2016, Egyptian judoka Islam El Shehaby was sent home after refusing to shake the hand of Israeli Or Sasson after their bout.

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Less than a month after world champion Saeid Mollaei walked off the Iranian team in protest of the boycott policy, the International Judo Federation on Wednesday announced that Iran had been suspended ahead of a full hearing.

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Iran's judo federation is accused of discriminating against Israeli athletes and breaking rules over manipulating competition results.

"The IJF Executive Committee considered that such conduct is intolerable," the federation said.

Mollaei has said he was repeatedly ordered by Iranian officials to lose matches or withdraw from competitions, including last month's World Judo Championships, so as not to face Israelis. He is currently in hiding in Germany.

The president of Iran's judo federation, Arash Miresmaeili, condemned the IJF for suspending it and called it "hasty and unfair," the semi-official Mehr news agency reported on Wednesday.

Miresmaeili said the IJF sent an email on Sept. 13 and asked Iran to send a report to defend itself. "Unfortunately, once we saw the World Federation's email today, it is completely apart from the routine," he said.

Iran does not recognize Israel, and Iranian sports teams have for several decades had a policy of not competing against Israelis.

IJF spokesman Vlad Marinescu said any ban would not apply to next year's Tokyo Olympics. That's because the Iranian Olympic Committee, not the Iranian judo federation, formally enters the Olympic team.

Meanwhile, the IJF is exploring ways to allow Mollaei to compete on the International Olympic Committee's refugee team.

The IOC has signaled a harder line on boycotts in recent years.

In June, IOC President Thomas Bach criticized governments who "clearly abuse sport for their political purposes," noting a case in May of a Tunisian court blocking four Israelis from competing at the taekwondo junior world championships.

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Now he's training for next year's Olympics without a guarantee that he can compete.

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Mollaei was the defending world champion, and Israel's Sagi Muki his biggest rival for the gold medal. There was one problem – Iran has a policy of boycotting all competitions against Israelis, even if that means an athlete's training was all for nothing.

Mollaei told The Associated Press he was ordered to lose a preliminary bout against a Russian in order to cover up the reason for his withdrawal. When he refused and won, he received more intimidating calls from senior officials.

"For once, I decided to live as a free man for myself, and prove to the world that I am a brave man," Mollaei said in a recent interview in Germany, where he's living in an undisclosed location.

"I did this for my human soul. For myself. I wanted to practice and compete with freedom, with peace of mind," said Mollaei, speaking in Persian. "I didn't want to worry about whom to compete with and whom not to compete with. I'll compete with anyone, to honor the Olympic charter."

In the end, Mollaei lost a bronze-medal bout and didn't face Muki, who won gold. The International Judo Federation, which is supporting Mollaei, said he received demands to withdraw from an Iranian deputy sports minister, embassy staff and the head of the Iranian Olympic Committee.

Mollaei's likeliest route to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics is now the International Olympic Committee's team for refugees. The IJF is helping him but said he will need refugee status from the United Nations.

So far, adapting to life in Germany is hard.

"Even the clothes you can see on me [are gifts]. I had nothing when I arrived in Germany. I just decided to come and I came," he said. "I had a lot of gifts from friends and this is how I live now, with the help of a few friends and the IJF. I'm still waiting to see what will happen later, how I can compete, but obviously from the very beginning of my arrival here in Germany I started my training. Where and how I will compete later, I don't know yet."

Mollaei said he has not asked for asylum in Germany. Instead, he is living on a visa issued when he competed in German club events and is cautious about security.

Powerfully built, with broad shoulders, Mollaei speaks softly and chooses his words carefully.

"Even when I want to contact my family I do it through a friend in Tehran because my family is under surveillance and I can't talk about many issues," he said. "I don't have much contact with any of my friends."

Mollaei told the AP that he had been given similar orders to avoid Israeli competitors on three previous occasions. The last time was in February, when he failed to appear for the medal ceremony at a competition in France because it would mean sharing the podium with Muki.

"Almost all Iranian athletes have received such orders when it is linked to Israeli athletes," he said.

Iranian officials have said Mollaei was somehow manipulated into leaving the team, and that he would be welcomed if he returned home.

He is skeptical, pointing to an Iranian letter to the IJF in May pledging to comply with Olympic nondiscrimination rules. At the time, it was hailed as a signal that Iran would end its sports boycott of Israel.

"I can assure you that they didn't comply with the Olympic Charter. So how can we trust them?" Mollaei said of Iran's sports officials.

Mollaei's break with the Iranian authorities comes at a time when activists are using sports to defy government demands.

Female Iranian activists have campaigned for years to be allowed to attend sports stadiums, particularly for men's soccer games, and staged protests at last year's World Cup in Russia. Last week, Iranian news outlets reported 29-year-old soccer fan Sahar Khodayari had died after setting herself on fire upon learning she could spend six months in prison for trying to sneak into a game.

Mollaei expressed sympathy for Khodayari and other female campaigners.

"I wondered why this happened, why Iranian women can't freely live like other girls, and enjoy sports and enjoy watching sports," he said. "I don't know what's going on, and why such difficulties should only happen to Iranians and the Iranian sport community.

"I don't know what to say. I'm just sad and disappointed. I just hope that one day the girls and athletes in my country can live freely and can enjoy life."

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Saeid Mollaei's request for asylum was confirmed by the International Judo Federation, which expressed support for the Iranian athlete.

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Earlier this week, Israel's Judo Association accused Iran of forcefully coercing Mollaei, ranked No. 1 in the world, into losing his semi-final match at the World Judo Championship in Tokyo to avoid facing Israel's Sagi Muki in the final.

IJA chairman Moshe Ponte later told Army Radio that Mollaei "intended to continue the contest, even if he had to face Sagi Muki at the final. We heard he'd asked the head of the Iranian judo association to ensure that his family was kept safe."

Ponte added: "From what we understand, within a short time Iranian intelligence officials came both to his home in Iran and to the judo arena and warned him."

Muki would go on to win the tournament, becoming the first Israeli male athlete to win a World Championship gold.

Iranian judo officials said in May that they would end the decades-long practice of boycotting matches against Israeli athletes and "fully respect the Olympic Charter and its nondiscrimination principle."

The International Judo Federation said in a statement at the time that the Iranian commitment came after several rounds of talks regarding a "disturbing phenomenon" in which Iranian athletes suddenly claim "injuries" or intentionally fail their weigh-ins to avoid meeting athletes from certain countries.

This article was originally published by i24NEWS.

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