The conflict between the United States and Iran is no longer confined to the skies or the Strait of Hormuz.
Within hours it had reached front pages in Israel and the US, been referenced in a speech by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and been shared by Mike Waltz, the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, The New York Times reported. From there, an Israeli account called Mossad Commentary, which shares its name with Israel’s intelligence agency but has no confirmed link to it, pushed the claim further, suggesting Iran was stalling rather than negotiating in good faith. A recent episode shows exactly how. A sensational, unverified claim about Iran’s nuclear programme began life in an obscure pocket of the internet. That did not stop the claim from spreading rapidly. The quotation was picked up by Israeli accounts and then broadcast by a television channel there, which described it as Iran’s first open admission that it was building a bomb. By that evening, it had found its way into a speech by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Mount Herzl, Israel’s national cemetery in Jerusalem, where he referred to it as proof of Iran’s intentions. In Washington, Mike Waltz, the Trump administration’s ambassador to the United Nations, shared the claim online, saying Iran was “finally admitting what’s been obvious for years. Senator Rick Scott of Florida also reposted it, and Fox News also covered the claim. Yair Netanyahu, the prime minister’s son and a political commentator, amplified the posts within minutes. Less than three hours after that, the claim had made its way into his father’s speech. Esmail Baghaei, spokesman for Iran’s foreign ministry, dismissed the viral post as “an example of the flood of lies against the Islamic Republic. Iran’s nuclear programme has drawn international scrutiny for three decades, though Tehran insists it is for civilian purposes only. The country’s nuclear programme was one of the reasons US President Donald Trump cites to justify his campaign against Iran.
Half an hour later, Israel’s Channel 14 ran the quote in English.
There was no evidence the commander ever said this, and no proof that Iran has built a nuclear weapon. He accused Israel of being behind such claims, though he offered no supporting evidence, and told reporters that similar allegations had been used for two decades to justify military action against Iran.
