This study investigates the barriers of the institutional-synergy between the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) – two strategic bodies that shape the national narrative, conduct public diplomacy, and manage national and international public opinion. Employing a qualitative research design based on thematic analysis, data were gathered through 21 semi-structured interviews with media, diplomatic, and academic experts and triangulated with official documents from both organizations. The findings reveal that this lack of synergy stems from a set of inter-related, multi-layered barriers. The findings indicate that the failure to achieve synergy between the two organizations results from the interaction of multiple, multi-layered, and intertwined barriers, which can be classified into four main categories: structural–institutional barriers, cultural–communicative barriers, political–factional barriers, and professional–expertise-related barriers. structural-institutional barriers such as the absence of a joint coordination body and fragmented decision-making, cultural-communicative barriers including inherent tensions between media and diplomatic logic and institutional distrust, political-factional barriers like internal rivalries and managerial instability, and professional-expertise barriers encompassing insufficient foreign-policy knowledge and a lack of professional standards for constructing international narratives. Overall, the research suggests that the IRIB-MFA disconnect is not a mere behavioral or incidental problem, but rather a structural, institutional, and systemic issue generated by the simultaneous and mutually reinforcing interaction of these four categories of barriers.