Ahmadinejad offers his condolences to Elena Frias, the mother of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, during his funeral in Caracas. (Reuters)

Tehran, March 12 (AP): Senior Iranian clerics have criticised President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for consoling Hugo Chavez’s mother with a hug — a physical contact considered a sin under the country’s strict Islamic codes.

The controversy follows a widely published photo showing Ahmadinejad embracing Chavez’s mother at the funeral of the late President. Iranian papers today cited clerics from the religious centre of Qom who described the contact as “forbidden” and inappropriate behaviour. Iran's strict Islamic codes prohibit physical contact between unrelated members of the opposite sex.