Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry has summoned Iranian Ambassador Ali Chegini and handed him an official note of protest over what it described as “disparaging and inappropriate” remarks directed at Venezuelan institutions and authorities, according to the Clash Report Telegram channel.
The protest concerns comments made by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in an interview with the Mehr news agency, in which he said: “This is not Venezuela, where you take one person and everyone else gets scared and backs down.”
The dispute comes amid major political changes in Caracas following the US military operation in January that resulted in the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro.
Since then, Venezuela's interim government, led by Acting President Delcy Rodríguez, has entered US-backed negotiations and reached agreements on oil production.
The row also revives longstanding security concerns over the Maduro administration's ties with Tehran. Earlier reports indicated that more than 10,000 people from Iran, Syria, and Lebanon were issued official Venezuelan passports between 2010 and 2019, prompting concerns among US counterterrorism officials that the documents could facilitate illicit cross-border travel.
By Jeyhun Aghazada
