Crossroads Asia | Diplomacy | Central Asia

Uzbekistan Wants Out of the Iran-US Social Media War

Tashkent summoned the Iranian ambassador to lodge a protest regarding social media posts by Iranian diplomatic missions.

U.S. Secretary Marco Rubio, with Jeanette Rubio, receives a tour of Registan Square in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, Oct. 19, 2026. At left is Uzbekistan Foreign Minister Bakhtiyor Odilovich Saidov and at right is Head of the Presidential Administration Saida Mirziyoyeva.

On October 23, Uzbekistan’s Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador in Tashkent in order to hand over a note of protest related to a recent slate of social media postings made by several Iranian diplomatic missions. The posts sniped at U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, using his recent visit to Samarkand as a touchstone.

“It’s great that you’re learning history! The place where you are standing is part of the Persian civilization and architecture. The same civilization you were babbling nonsense about last week at the Acropolis!” read a since-removed post on X from the Iranian embassy in Armenia. 

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