From India to Israel to US: How a fake Iran nuclear quote went global

Dubai: It began with a post from an X account in India. Within hours, a fabricated quotation attributed to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander had travelled through Israeli social media and television, entered a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and crossed the Atlantic to US politicians and Fox News.

The remarkable journey of the fake quote shows how quickly an unverified social media claim can acquire the appearance of credibility — even when the subject is as consequential as Iran’s nuclear programme and a war entering its sixth month, according to a New York Times review.

The claim surfaced on the morning of August 5, when an India-based X account attributed a dramatic statement to Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Vahidi was purported to have said that Iran would continue pursuing nuclear weapons for as long as the United States and Israel possessed them.

There is no evidence that he made the statement, and no evidence has emerged that Iran has developed nuclear weapons.

But the quote did not stay on the fringes of social media for long.

From India to Israel

Within hours, the claim was repeated by another Indian account and then picked up by prominent Israeli social media accounts.

A major boost came when Mossad Commentary — an account that shares a name with Israel’s intelligence agency but has no known connection to it — circulated the purported remarks as evidence that Tehran was buying time rather than abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Israel’s Channel 14 then published the claim, portraying it as the first public acknowledgement that Iran was working towards a nuclear bomb.

INDIA: The first known appearance

• On August 5, an India-based X account posts a quotation attributed to IRGC commander Ahmad Vahidi claiming Iran would continue working towards nuclear weapons while the US and Israel possessed them.

• There is no evidence Vahidi made the statement.

• INDIA AGAIN: The claim gets repeated

• Around two hours later, another Indian account posts the same purported quotation, helping the claim begin its journey beyond the original source.

• ISRAELI SOCIAL MEDIA: A major amplification

• Mossad Commentary, a prominent Israeli account with no known connection to the Mossad intelligence agency, circulates the claim and argues that it shows Iran has no intention of abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

• ISRAELI TELEVISION: The claim looks more authoritative

• Channel 14 publishes the quotation and portrays it as the first time Iran has publicly acknowledged pursuing a nuclear bomb.

• Its English-language post attracts hundreds of thousands of views.

• NETANYAHU: From social media to a PM’s speech

• Within hours, Benjamin Netanyahu cites the purported remarks in a speech at Mount Herzl.

• “We heard today the commander of the I.R.G.C., Vahidi, explicitly declaring Iran’s intention to keep developing nuclear weapons,” he says.

• UNITED STATES: Politicians amplify it

• US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz reposts the claim. Republican Senator Rick Scott also shares it.

• FOX NEWS: The claim reaches US television

• Fox News discusses the quotation on air as potentially significant evidence of Iran’s nuclear intentions.

• THEN THE UNRAVELLING: Questions emerge

• Researchers and journalists find no credible Iranian source for the supposed statement.

• Waltz’s post disappears.

• Fox News later tells viewers the quotation was “unverified and inaccurate” and says it regrets the error.

• THE LESSON: ‘Narrative laundering’

• A fabricated claim moved from social media in India through increasingly prominent sources until politicians and major media organisations treated it as credible — illustrating how repetition can give a falsehood the appearance of verification.

The post was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Netanyahu’s son Yair responded to posts about the purported remarks.

Then came the moment that gave the false claim extraordinary credibility.

Less than three hours later, Netanyahu referred to it in a speech at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem.

“We heard today the commander of the I.R.G.C., Vahidi, explicitly declaring Iran’s intention to keep developing nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said.

His spokesman did not explain to The New York Times how the fabricated quotation made its way into the prime minister’s speech, but defended Netanyahu’s longstanding warnings about Iran’s nuclear programme.

Then it reached Washington

Once Israel’s prime minister had repeated the claim, its journey continued into the United States.

Mike Waltz, the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, reposted it, saying Iran was “finally admitting what’s been obvious for years”.

Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida also shared the claim.

Fox News cited it on air.

Anchor Bill Hemmer read the purported quotation while interviewing former US Central Command chief Gen. Joseph Votel and described it as being about as close to an Iranian admission as he had heard.

But doubts about the quotation were growing.

Waltz’s post was later removed without explanation.

Fox News subsequently acknowledged on air that the quotation was “unverified and inaccurate” and said it regretted the error.

Why the timing mattered

The episode was particularly sensitive because it unfolded as US President Donald Trump was trying to create room for diplomacy with Tehran.

The fabricated quotation went viral three days after Trump said he was halting attacks on Iran to give peace negotiations a chance.

If genuine, a declaration by the head of the Revolutionary Guards that Iran intended to pursue nuclear weapons could have provided powerful ammunition to those arguing against negotiations.

“This quote was clearly crafted to drive a wedge into peace negotiations,” Darren L. Linvill of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub told The New York Times.

Who actually fabricated the quotation remains unclear.

Iran blamed Israel but offered no evidence for the accusation.

How a falsehood gains credibility

Fact-checkers describe what happened as a classic example of “narrative laundering”.

A dubious claim begins with an obscure or unreliable source. Another account repeats it. A more prominent source then picks it up. A media organisation reports it. A political leader cites that report.

At each stage, the original source becomes less visible while the claim appears increasingly authoritative.

On Azriel, co-founder of Israel’s Bodkim fact-checking organisation, told The Times that the quotation “gained credibility every time an outlet or a politician repeated it”.

Eventually, people encountering the claim were no longer seeing an unsupported social media post from India. They were seeing something repeated by Israeli television, the Israeli prime minister, senior American politicians and a major US television network.

The fake quote had effectively acquired credentials it never possessed.

And by the time corrections arrived, the original posts and thousands of responses treating the statement as genuine were still circulating online.