TEHRAN -- Iran’s Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Seyyed Abbas Salehi, has voiced strong criticism of the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado after she dedicated her award to former U.S. President Donald Trump. 
Salehi’s remarks came in a post on X, where he reflected on the legacy of the Nobel Peace Prize and expressed disappointment with recent recipients.
“Among the Nobel Peace Prize winners, alongside the usual political maneuvering, there were once enduring names: Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King Jr., Mother Teresa, Mandela, and others,” Salehi wrote. “But for years, such names have vanished. Once again, the mountain has labored and brought forth a mouse — a laureate who dedicated her prize to Trump!”
Machado, leader of Venezuela’s opposition movement, was awarded the prize by the Norwegian Nobel Committee last Friday. The announcement came amid Trump’s high-profile campaign to receive the prize himself, which included multiple nominations from pro-Trump politicians internationally.
Shortly after Machado’s win was announced, Trump revealed in a phone call that she had dedicated her Nobel Prize to him. The call followed criticism from the U.S. government, which described the Nobel Committee’s decision as prioritizing “politics over peace.” 
Steven Cheung, a White House spokesperson, tweeted, “President Trump continues to work toward peace agreements, ending wars, and saving lives. The Nobel Committee has shown once again that it prefers politics over peace.”
Trump himself has frequently expressed frustration over never winning the prize despite claiming to have prevented multiple wars, most recently at a rally in Iowa. While some international figures initially supported his nomination, others, including the Ukrainian parliament’s foreign affairs committee head, withdrew endorsement, citing doubts about his peace efforts.
The Nobel Peace Prize, established by Alfred Nobel’s will to honor those promoting “fraternity between nations” and the reduction of armies, now finds itself at the center of a contentious debate over the intersection of politics and peace.