A fabricated quotation attributed to a senior Iranian military commander, falsely claiming Tehran was openly pursuing nuclear weapons, travelled from an obscure account on X in India to the highest levels of the Trump administration and Israeli government within hours.
The quote, attributed to Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi, commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, claimed he had vowed the country would never abandon its nuclear ambitions as long as Israel and the US possessed such weapons, The New York Times reported.
According to the report, there is no evidence Vahidi ever made the remark or that Iran has developed nuclear weapons.
The post reportedly originated from an anonymous Indian X account with 175,000 followers, previously flagged by fact-checkers and Pakistan's government for sharing false and Islamophobic content, and was accompanied by an AI-generated image of a mushroom cloud.
It was then translated into Hindi and reposted by a second Indian account before Israeli accounts, including one called Mossad Commentary, amplified it further.
The claim was subsequently cited by Israel's Channel 14, before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu referenced it in a speech at Mount Herzl. In Washington, US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz reposted the quote, calling it Iran "finally admitting what's been obvious for years," while Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida also shared it.
Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer cited it during an on-air interview, according to the report.
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Waltz's post was later removed from X without explanation, and Fox News subsequently acknowledged the quote was "unverified and inaccurate."
Darren Linvill of Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub, who tracks disinformation, told the newspaper the episode was a textbook case of "narrative laundering," where propagandists seed falsehoods through multiple sources to make them appear credible.
Iran's foreign ministry spokesman dismissed the post as part of a "flood of lies" against the Islamic republic, blaming Israel without offering evidence.
The episode underscored how easily a single unverified social media post could shape international discourse on matters of war and peace.
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