A joint investigation by leading Israeli outlet Ynet and veteran New York Times journalist Ronen Bergman has exposed how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deployed a fabricated quote attributed to a top Iranian military commander to advance his hardline narrative on Iran’s nuclear program — a false claim that originated from a fringe pro-Israel, Hindu-nationalist social media account in India before spreading across global right-wing media and political circles.
The fake quote, falsely credited to Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps chief Ahmad Vahidi, was first posted to X on August 5 by Ritika, an Indian account aligned with Hindu nationalist politics that openly supports Israel. The fabricated statement claimed Vahidi said: “There will be no discussion over enriched uranium or nuclear weapons. As long as the United States and Israel possess nuclear weapons, we will continue working on them for our national security. If they disarm, we will disarm.”
Within hours of the original post, the false claim went viral. Just four and a half hours after its initial publication, an unofficial X account falsely branding itself “Mossad Commentary” — which has no actual connection to Israel’s official intelligence service and boasts more than 1 million followers — amplified the quote, adding additional commentary claiming Iran’s regime “is not preparing to abandon its nuclear ambitions. It is buying time. There will be no deal.”
The false attribution was then picked up by Israel’s Channel 14, a media outlet widely recognized as a mouthpiece for Netanyahu and his far-right governing coalition. A 2024 report confirmed the Israeli government has purchased millions of shekels in commercial airtime from the channel in recent years. Channel 14 presented the fake quote as “the first direct admission by an Iranian official that Tehran was developing a nuclear bomb,” and failed to disclose any verifiable primary source for the remarks.
Shortly after Channel 14 ran the story, Yair Netanyahu — the prime minister’s eldest son and an influential far-right voice within his inner circle, with nearly 300,000 X followers — reposted the content from both the unofficial Mossad account and Channel 14. Multiple independent reports have confirmed Yair Netanyahu, alongside his mother Sara, wields significant influence over the prime minister’s policy decisions, and he has a well-documented history of spreading misinformation and extreme right-wing messaging via his social media platforms. Even senior figures within Netanyahu’s own Likud party regularly seek his approval for political messaging.
It was at this point that Benjamin Netanyahu himself deployed the fake quote in an official public address to Israeli citizens. According to the investigation’s transcript, Netanyahu told attendees: “Today, we heard the commander of the Revolutionary Guards, Vahidi, explicitly declare Iran’s intention to continue developing nuclear weapons – ‘continue’, as he put it.”
From there, the disinformation spread beyond Israel’s borders, reaching top political and media figures in the United States. Mike Waltz, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, reposted Channel 14’s report on his own X account before deleting the post hours later after the fabrications were exposed. Prominent conservative U.S. commentator Mark Levin also shared the false claim with his large audience.
Mainstream U.S. outlet Fox News initially ran a story repeating the claim that Vahidi had admitted Iran would pursue nuclear weapons as long as Israel and the U.S. maintained their own arsenals, linking the remarks to growing concerns that Iran was using Strait of Hormuz negotiations to delay nuclear concessions. Only two days later did Fox News issue a clarification, acknowledging the remarks had been “previously taken out of context and amplified as comments made this week.” Major Indian wire service Asian News International also repeated the false claim, citing unvetted Israeli media reports.
Even after the source of the fabrication was exposed, the quote continued to circulate in pro-Netanyahu Israeli media. Multiple pro-government journalists, including Yaakov Bardugo and Avishay Ben Haim, repeated Netanyahu’s warning on national television, and Israel’s foreign ministry even amplified Netanyahu’s remarks featuring the fake quote on its official Persian-language X account.
Investigators say the entire episode fits a clear pattern of deliberate disinformation that serves Netanyahu’s longstanding political goal of blocking any nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran. Netanyahu has repeatedly stated his opposition to any new agreement, telling Channel 14 in June 2024: “As long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” adding that he had already saved Israel from “annihilation” twice by pushing back against Iranian nuclear progress.
While Ynet’s investigation could not definitively prove that Netanyahu or his inner circle coordinated the initial spread of the fake quote, it noted the campaign matches “a series of familiar markers of disinformation distribution” that have been tied to Netanyahu in the past. Just months earlier, in September 2024, Netanyahu’s office was accused of supplying false information to UK outlet *The Jewish Chronicle* and German newspaper *Bild* falsely claiming Hamas planned to smuggle Israeli hostages out of Gaza through the Rafah border crossing into Iran. Two senior Netanyahu aides are currently under criminal investigation for leaking classified documents to shape public opinion in favor of the controversial Israeli military offensive in Rafah.
The investigation also noted that Israeli state-backed influence operations have increasingly targeted audiences outside of Israel — particularly in the U.S. — as the Netanyahu government faces growing bipartisan criticism over its military campaign in Gaza and its hardline stance on Iran. This is not the first time Indian media has been used to spread anti-Iran disinformation either: Last month, Iran’s embassy in New Delhi issued a formal statement accusing Indian outlets of spreading false information about the country, urging media outlets “not to compromise the public trust and its professional credibility by disseminating fake and fabricated news” and asking them to “avoid participating in external propaganda efforts.”