Uzbekistan summons Iranian ambassador over posts on Samarkand's heritage
The Foreign Ministry handed a note of protest to Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Ali Eskandari over social-media posts by Iranian diplomatic missions describing Samarkand's monuments as part of "Persian" or "Iranian-Islamic" civilization.
On 23 October 2026, Uzbekistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Uzbekistan, Mohammad Ali Eskandari, and handed him a note of protest. The note concerned a series of social-media posts by Iranian diplomatic missions.
Why the protest was issued
According to the ministry, several of Iran's diplomatic missions abroad — including its embassies in Armenia and Zimbabwe — had presented the historical and architectural monuments of Samarkand, in particular the Registan ensemble, as part of "Persian" or "Iranian-Islamic" civilization in posts on social media. Uzbekistan firmly rejected that interpretation.
The posts appeared after a video address by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, recorded on Registan Square during his visit to Samarkand, in which he described the city as a historic trading center.
Uzbekistan's demand
The ministry demanded that Iran remove the relevant posts and take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future. The official statement stressed that Samarkand's historical and cultural image reflects the centuries-old history, statehood traditions and cultural development of the Uzbek people.
Context
Samarkand is one of the world's oldest cities; its 2,750th anniversary was marked under UNESCO's auspices in 2007. Monuments such as the Registan, Gur-e-Amir and Shah-i-Zinda are masterpieces of Timurid-era architecture and are inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List. The region's cultural heritage took shape over centuries in a land where Turkic and Persianate traditions met.
As of publication, no official Iranian response, nor confirmation that the posts had been removed, had been reported.
