Michael Kimmelman of the New York Times declared the performance a tragedy, failing to meet the efforts of proper cultural exchange and public diplomacy. Sports diplomacy refers to the use of sport and sport activity as a means to influence diplomatic, social, and political relations of a foreign public. Sporting exchanges provide a platform for increased dialogue among the people of foreign states, and to promote cultural understanding. Having placed in the 49th World Team Table Tennis Championship in the People's Republic of China, Iran's Table Tennis team accepted an offer to hold joint training with the United States. The Iranian team trained in Las Vegas, beating the U.S. team 3-1. The Iranian team went on to play in the Las Vegas Open Table Tennis Tournament that year. Wrestling is the national sport of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Iranian athletics associations often invites foreign teams to compete in the Takhti Cup. Iran admitted the United States to the 1998 Takhti Cup in a cultural exchange. The 1998 Takhti Cup welcomed the first American sports team to Iran since the Islamic Revolution. Iran views the opportunity to show its rich heritage and history in the sport of wrestling. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting is the state-run broadcast communications organization. The IRIB contributes to the Islamic Republic's cultural diplomacy by providing Iranian focused radio, satellite-television, and web based broadcasts presented in a number of languages. Al Alam is the IRIB's 24-hour Arabic satellite channel, targeting over 300 million Arabic speakers worldwide. Launched in early 2003, the network initially served as a platform of opposition to both the Iraq led Ba'ath Party and the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq. The BBC early reported that Al Alam shared programming similarities to Qatar-based Al Jazeera, only with an Iranian message. Such reporting has allowed Al Alam to promote a pan-Muslim image in order to downplay the Shia-Sunni sectarian conflict during the height of Operation Iraqi Freedom. HispanTV is the IRIB's newest satellite network venture, targeting Spanish speaking populations of the Americas. First offering its news and analysis via the internet, HispanTV is scheduled to expand its satellite broadcasts in early 2012. Hispan TV is intending to counter what Ali Mohaqqeq, General-Secretary of the Iranian Embassy in Brazil, says is a western "monopoly of news about Iran and the Middle East in Latin America." The primary goal of Hispan TV is to provide a complete platform of multimedia service to the Spanish speaking peoples of Latin America, offering an opportunity for cultural exchange through television and web broadcasts.