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Uzbekistan summoned Iran’s ambassador on 23 October and delivered a formal note of protest after several Iranian embassies posted material on the social network X that Tashkent said presented Samarkand’s historical and cultural heritage in a one-sided, politically motivated manner.
According to an official statement from Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Muhammad Ali Iskandari, the Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Uzbekistan, was called to the ministry, where the note was handed to him in person as an expression of Uzbekistan’s firm objection.
The ministry said the offending posts were published by a number of Iranian diplomatic missions abroad — not by the Tehran government directly — but held Iran responsible for the content distributed through its official diplomatic channels. The statement did not name the specific embassies involved or reproduce the disputed posts.
During the meeting, Uzbek officials stressed that the heritage of Samarkand, Bukhara, Khiva and other historic cities of Uzbekistan forms an inseparable part of a centuries-long process of historical and cultural development. The ministry demanded that the posts be removed from the social-media pages of the relevant diplomatic missions and that Iran ensure no repetition of such conduct.
Tashkent said it values its relationship with Tehran, which it described as grounded in mutual respect and trust, but made clear it would maintain an uncompromising position against any one-sided interpretation of the country’s historical and cultural legacy.
The episode reflects a recurring sensitivity in Central Asia over the cultural ownership of the pre-Islamic and early Islamic civilisations that flourished in the region. Cities such as Samarkand and Bukhara are claimed as part of the heritage of multiple modern nations, including Iran, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and disputes over their attribution periodically surface in public discourse and, increasingly, on social media.