A fake claim about Iran’s nuclear ambitions was started with an anonymous X account in India and within hours it found its way into Israeli media, US political circles and even a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
That did not stop the post from taking off, The New York Times reported. The post showed Vahidi’s picture alongside an AI-generated image of a mushroom cloud. There was no evidence that Vahidi had made the statement though. There was also no evidence that Iran developed a nuclear weapon. Yair Netanyahu , the Israeli prime minister’s son, also shared the claim. Within less than three hours, the unverified quote reached Benjamin Netanyahu. Mike Waltz, the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, reposted it on X, writing that Iran was “finally admitting what’s been obvious for years. Republican Senator Rick Scott also shared the claim, while Fox News discussed it on air, with anchors and guests citing it as evidence of Iran’s alleged duplicity.
The claim surfaced on August 5, when an alleged Indian X account posted that Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps , said Iran would never give up its pursuit of nuclear weapons as long as Israel and the US had them.
The quote claimed Vahidi said: “As long as the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue working on them for our national security. Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer read the statement on air and said: “That’s as close to an admission as I’ve heard, and we’ve been watching this story for years. The channel’s on-screen chyron said, “IRGC Vows to Keep Nukes”.
