One fake X post from India. An Iranian nuclear claim. Then Netanyahu cited it
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel (left), and US President Donald Trump (right). (File Photos)The US and Iran aren’t fighting only with missiles. Alongside strikes and the standoff over the Strait of Hormuz, a quieter battle is playing out online, where unverified claims are being amplified across borders and, in some cases, entering the political discourse around fragile ceasefire talks.
The New York Times traced one recent example in detail. A claim about Iran’s nuclear programme began on an obscure corner of the internet and, within hours, spread to prominent media outlets in Israel and the US. It was later cited in a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and shared online by Mike Waltz, the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations.
How the claim started
On the morning of August 5, an anonymous X account based in India posted what appeared to be a major revelation. The post claimed that Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, had said Iran would never give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons as long as Israel and the US held their own. The post included a photo of the general alongside an AI-generated image of a mushroom cloud.
The report found no evidence that Vahidi had made the statement. It also noted that there is no public evidence that Iran has built a nuclear weapon.
How it spread
The Times mapped the claim’s path across platforms and borders. It began with an Indian account with roughly 175,000 followers. Within two hours, a second Indian account with about 82,000 followers shared a Hindi translation.
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An Israeli account calling itself Mossad Commentary, which shares its name with Israel’s intelligence agency but has no confirmed connection to it, then pushed the claim further, suggesting Iran was stalling rather than negotiating honestly. Half an hour later, Israel’s Channel 14 broadcast the quote in English, describing it as Iran’s first open admission that it was building a bomb. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son, amplified the posts within minutes. Less than three hours later, his father cited it in a speech at Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery in Jerusalem, calling it proof of Iran’s intentions.
In Washington, Mike Waltz shared the claim online, writing that Iran was “finally admitting what’s been obvious for years”. Senator Rick Scott of Florida reposted it as well, and Fox News covered the claim. Waltz’s post was later removed from X without explanation, according to the Times.
Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, dismissed the post as “an example of the flood of lies against the Islamic Republic.” He accused Israel of being behind such claims, though he did not offer evidence, and said similar allegations had been used for two decades to justify military action against Iran.
Iran’s nuclear programme has drawn international scrutiny for three decades. Tehran maintains the programme is for civilian purposes only, though it has been one of the reasons President Trump has cited for his campaign against Iran.
