Pakistan, still on high alert after last month’s brief aerial clash with India, now finds itself swept into the digital maelstrom of disinformation accompanying the escalating hostilities between neighbouring Iran and Israel.
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Determined to distance itself from the turmoil unfolding just across its southwestern frontier, Islamabad has offered moral support to Tehran by publicly criticising Israel, while simultaneously backing diplomatic efforts to revive a nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.
But the disinformation war has found fertile ground in the country. In the hours after Israel’s strike on Iran on June 13, a flurry of AI-manipulated videos surfaced on social media, each seemingly crafted to paint Pakistan as Iran’s willing accomplice.
One doctored clip appeared to show Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif claiming that Islamabad had tipped off Tehran about Israel’s surprise assault – an attack that came just two days before Iranian and US negotiators were set to meet in Oman.
Another falsified video featured Mohsen Rezaei, a former commander-in-chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, asserting that Pakistan had pledged to launch nuclear weapons against Israel if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government ever used them against Iran.
Other spurious recordings supposedly showed US President Donald Trump threatening both Iran and Pakistan, and Netanyahu warning that Pakistan would be “next” after Iran.
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