US Embassy denies claim of 'special Pope award to Iranian ambassador'
After Iranian state media reported that the Pope had granted the Islamic Republic’s ambassador to the Vatican a “special and exclusive badge,” the U.S. Embassy in the Vatican denied the story and called it misleading. According to American officials, the badge was part of a standard diplomatic procedure in the Vatican that is given to all ambassadors after several years of service and did not contain any political message or special support for Iran.
The story began when some official Iranian media reported that Mohammad Hossein Mokhtari, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Vatican, had received one of the Vatican's highest diplomatic decorations from Pope Leo XIV; news that was widely reflected in cyberspace and international media and was cited as a sign of the closeness between the Vatican and Tehran.
However, the US Embassy in the Vatican issued a statement on social media, refuting this narrative and announcing: "Contrary to news reports, Pope Leo has not granted a special and exclusive honor to the Iranian ambassador to the Vatican."
The embassy explained that the badge, according to a long-standing diplomatic tradition, is awarded to all official Vatican ambassadors who have been in their mission for more than two years and has been a standard practice for many years. The US officials also stressed that “the badge does not imply support or opposition to the policies of any particular country.”
According to Vatican media reports, the medal was awarded to 13 ambassadors in a joint ceremony and was not reserved for the representative of the Islamic Republic. Also, contrary to some published accounts, the medal was not awarded directly by the Pope and the ceremony was held by officials from the Vatican Secretariat of State.
However, media outlets close to the Iranian government described the event as a major diplomatic success, claiming that the Iranian embassy’s activities in the fields of “interfaith dialogue,” “peace,” and “peaceful coexistence” were being honored. Some Iranian media outlets even linked the award to the Pope’s recent positions on regional tensions and war.
The news sparked mixed reactions on social media. Some users and political activists criticized the awarding of such a title to the representative of the Islamic Republic, even as part of normal diplomatic protocol, and called it a disregard for the human rights situation in Iran. In contrast, Vatican officials and the US embassy have stressed that this is simply part of the usual diplomatic formalities in the Vatican and should not be interpreted as a political message.
