Iran denied Thursday that the country’s tourism minister and vice president Hamid Baghaei shook hands with Israeli Tourism Minister Stas Misezhnikov at a tourism fare in Madrid.

The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, reported: “The Zionist regime published a blatant lie in order to distract global attention from its crimes in Gaza last year.” However, there was no official Iranian response to the meeting captured on camera between the Israeli minister and the Iranian official manning his country’s booth at the fair.

According to IRNA, “the Israeli lie” was published while the journalists and media photographers were still attending the opening ceremony of the Fiture International Tourism Trade Fair in Madrid, Spain. “They completely ignored this fact,” the Iranian report wrote.

A reporter for the Iranian news agency stationed in Madrid wrote that “at no point during the opening ceremony” did Misezhnikov and his Iranian colleague even stand next to one another.