Iran's embassy in Armenia sparked a scandal — now Tehran is making excuses to Tashkent
Iran's Foreign Ministry has attempted to smooth over the diplomatic scandal and justify itself to Tashkent over the provocative posts by its embassies, which declared the monuments of Samarkand to be "Iranian-Islamic heritage."
The official representative of the Iranian foreign policy agency, Esmail Baghaei, stating that Tehran "highly values" relations with Uzbekistan, tried to attribute the incident to rhetoric addressed to Washington.
According to him, with the publications of the video featuring U.S. Secretary of State Rubio against the backdrop of Registan Square (the famous historical square in Samarkand, which is the heart of the ancient city and a UNESCO World Heritage site), the diplomatic missions intended to address exclusively the American side.
Baghaei tried to present the situation as if the controversial statement about "Iranian-Islamic civilization" was not an encroachment on foreign territories, but merely a reminder of a "shared heritage" that should strengthen rather than destroy friendly ties.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry's attempts to evade direct responsibility were preceded by a sharp démarche from Tashkent. On October 23, Iranian Ambassador Eskandari was summoned to the Uzbek Foreign Ministry and handed a note of protest. The Uzbek side harshly characterized the statements of the Iranian diplomatic missions in Armenia and Zimbabwe as a one-sided and politicized attempt to appropriate the historical and cultural heritage of Uzbekistan and demanded the immediate removal of the provocative posts from social media.
As a reminder, amid the recent visit of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to Uzbekistan, the Iranian Embassy in Armenia provoked a diplomatic scandal.
The reason for the harsh statements by the Iranian diplomats was Marco Rubio's post on the social network X, in which he shared his impressions of visiting the ancient Uzbek city:
"Few places on Earth have historically played such an important role in world trade and commerce as Samarkand.
It is a great honor for me to be here today — not only for the sake of remembering history, but also for the sake of opportunities for the future," Rubio said in the video post.
In response to the American official's post, the Iranian Embassy in Armenia published an unexpectedly aggressive comment:
"It's great that you're learning history! The place where you are standing is part of Persian civilization and architecture. But it is that very civilization about which you talked complete nonsense last week at the Acropolis!"
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Iranian diplomatic mission called into question Uzbekistan's sovereignty over Samarkand
