A composite image showing (from left) Russian Ambassador to South Africa Roman Ambarov, Ukrainian Ambassador to South Africa Dr Olexander Scherba, and Iranian Ambassador to South Africa Mansour Shakib Mehr. Gillian Schutte unravels the intricate web of diplomacy as Ukraine’s ambassador in South Africa publicly refuses to sign a condolence book for Iran’s fallen leaders, igniting a debate on the ethics of diplomatic conduct and the role of media in shaping narratives during conflict. Diplomacy depends on restraint.
Rituals exist to preserve a minimum level of civility between states even during periods of conflict. Condolence books belong to that tradition. They acknowledge death and recognise the dignity of a grieving nation.
Governments that hold serious disagreements still observe this practice because international relations requires discipline. The Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran in South Africa recently informed foreign missions that a book of condolences had been opened following thekilling of Ayatollah Ali Khameneiand senior Iranian officials during the recent United States and Israeli strikes on Iran. Ukraine’s ambassador to South Africa, Dr Olexander Scherba, responded publicly with a letter refusing to sign the condolence book.
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He accused Iran’s leadership of responsibility for Ukrainian civilian deaths because Iranian-manufactured Shahed drones have been used by Russia during the war in Ukraine. He concluded that he would not express condolences for someone whose death he does not mourn. The refusal alone already represents an unusual diplomatic act.
The public tone of the letter transformed the episode into something more serious. The ambassador placed the death of a national leader inside a moral indictment directed at another state. The Iranian Embassy responded publicly on X to clarify the situation.
The embassy explained that a note verbale had been sent to the Department of International Relations and Cooperation and copied to the diplomatic corps rather than a personal invitation directed at the Ukrainian mission. It also reminded diplomats that their role is not to incite hostility between peoples. To explain its broader position on the Russia–Ukraine conflict, the embassy quoted the thirteenth-century Persian poet Sa’di: Human beings are members of a whole,In the creation of one essence and soul.If one member is afflicted with pain,Other members uneasy will remain.If you have no sympathy for human pain,The name of humans you cannot retain.
The verse forms part of Sa’di’s Bani Adam, a work deeply embedded in Persian intellectual tradition. The poem is also inscribed in gold weave on the great Persian carpet displayed at the United Nations headquarters in New York, gifted by Iran to the organisation. The inscription stands as a reminder, within the very architecture of global diplomacy, that humanity shares a single moral condition.
The Russian Embassy in South Africa responded in far sharper language. In a statement posted publicly it wrote: “We thought we had seen everything from the Ukrainian ambassador, but this goes even further. Mocking the deaths of hundreds of Iranians while claiming to be a person of faith can only come from someone with no conscience and no soul.
Can such people truly care about their own citizens? We doubt it.”
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