标签： Asia

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.”

In a stark rejection of a US-brokered initiative aimed at ending months of conflict in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that his government will not accept former President Donald Trump’s 15-point peace framework, and ruled out any Israeli military withdrawal from the enclave until the complete disarmament of the Hamas militant group.

The plan, spearheaded by Trump’s Board of Peace, was billed as a major breakthrough to de-escalate the Gaza war when it was unveiled last month. The original ceasefire architecture, agreed to by both Israel and Hamas in October 2023, was meant to pave the way for a gradual end to hostilities. But despite the formal ceasefire agreement, Israel has continued to launch near-daily airstrikes across Gaza in the months since.

When the 15-point plan was announced, Trump stated that Hamas had already committed to laying down its weapons under the terms of the deal. However, Netanyahu made clear his government’s opposition during a weekly cabinet meeting Sunday. “Israel rejects the 15-point document,” he said, adding that the Israel Defense Forces “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens.”

Independent regional news outlet Middle East Eye obtained a full copy of the draft agreement last month, revealing key details that explain the core disagreement between the two sides. Unlike Israel’s demands for Hamas to surrender weapons directly to Israeli authorities, the framework outlines that Hamas and other Palestinian factions would not transfer Gaza’s weapons to Israeli control. Instead, all weapons would be managed by a newly created domestic Palestinian body called the National Committee, with all arms remaining under exclusive Palestinian ownership.

The draft text explicitly states: “No weapons will be transferred or surrendered to Israel or any non-Palestinian parties,” and specifies that by the conclusion of the disarmament process, “the National Committee alone shall retain, store, or control weapons in Gaza.” The agreement frames the weapons collection process as an exclusively domestic Palestinian affair, noting that the National Committee — set to act as Gaza’s transitional authority — would hold sole power to register weapons, issue and revoke licenses, and enforce weapons regulations, with all Palestinian factions required to cooperate with the body.

Hamas has already publicly pushed back on any unilateral implementation of the plan, stating it will not enact any part of the framework unless Israel fulfills its own agreed obligations, chief among them a full, phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from all areas of Gaza they currently occupy. The 15-point document itself codifies this condition, requiring that each phase of the process can only move forward after an independent international commission verifies that all parties have completed their obligations from the previous stage.

Shortly after the plan was made public, Trump praised the initiative on his social platform Truth Social, calling it “a monumental step toward lasting PEACE and SECURITY.” He outlined at the time that Israeli forces would withdraw from Gaza incrementally as disarmament progressed, and that a UN-mandated International Stabilization Force would partner with a new Palestinian police force to maintain security in the enclave.

Hamas official Ghazi Hamad reaffirmed the group’s position to Reuters when the plan was released, noting that Hamas would keep its weapons until Israel halts all military attacks, allows a massive expansion of humanitarian aid and commercial goods into blockaded Gaza, and completes its force withdrawal in line with the original October 2023 ceasefire agreement.

Early on Sunday, a blaze erupted at a facility operated by Saudi Arabian state energy giant Aramco in the Red Sea coastal city of Jizan, located near Saudi Arabia’s southern border with Yemen. Saudi emergency services quickly responded to the incident, and authorities confirmed the fire was fully extinguished with no injuries or fatalities reported in the attack.

In an official statement posted to the social platform X, Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Energy confirmed the fire struck an Aramco refinery site in Jizan, adding that competent agencies had finalized initial response protocols. The ministry declined to comment on the potential origin or cause of the blaze when releasing the statement.

Shortly after the fire was reported, however, Yahya Saree, military spokesperson for Yemen’s Houthi movement, claimed responsibility for the incident via X. Saree said the Houthi group had launched a precision drone strike against the Jizan Aramco refinery, noting the attack was launched in retaliation for what he described as Saudi Arabia’s violation of Yemeni airspace over the northern provinces of Saada and Hajjah.

Jizan has been a repeated target of Houthi attacks targeting Saudi energy infrastructure for years, as the border region has remained a flashpoint in the long-running Yemen conflict. Just one month prior, the Houthi movement claimed credit for separate strikes against Aramco facilities in Jizan, as well as attacks on oil infrastructure in Yanbu, another key Saudi Red Sea export terminal. Just last week, Aramco CEO Amin Nasser acknowledged that previous strikes on company assets had caused minor temporary production disruptions, but emphasized that operations were restored rapidly and that the attacks had not resulted in any material operational or financial damage to the firm.

In addition to the Jizan refinery strike, the Houthis also announced they had launched a large-scale attack using dozens of ballistic missiles and drones against Saudi-backed Yemeni government troops and military equipment positioned in the Yemeni Red Sea port city of Mokha.

This latest wave of attacks comes as armed conflict has reignited between the Houthi movement and Yemen’s internationally recognized government, which receives extensive military backing from Saudi Arabia. The resumption of fighting ends a two-year period of relative calm that followed a widely observed 2022 ceasefire. Since 2014, the Houthis have controlled Yemen’s capital Sanaa and most of northern Yemen, while the Saudi-backed government holds sway over much of the country’s southern territory. Last month, the Houthi movement also announced a naval blockade targeting Saudi shipping in the Red Sea and issued threats to commercial vessels transiting the strategic Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a critical global chokepoint for maritime energy trade.

The Jizan fire is being investigated separately from a separate incident reported in the eastern Saudi industrial city of Jubail. Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu Agency reported hearing a massive explosion in the Jubail region, with local Saudi media claiming the blast targeted gas processing facilities at Jubail Industrial City and sparked subsequent fires, though no official confirmation of that attack has been released as of yet.

These concurrent security incidents coincide with a major diplomatic shift in the region, as Saudi Arabia moves to deepen collective security cooperation with regional partners amid rising cross-border threat risks. Just two days before the Jizan attack, on Friday, Saudi Arabia signed a landmark trilateral defense agreement with Turkey and Pakistan in the holy city of Mecca. The pact includes a mutual defense clause, stating that an armed attack against any one of the three signatories will be considered an attack against all three parties.

On Saturday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan clarified the terms of the new agreement, stressing that the pact was not targeted at Iran and that the three partners had not formally named any shared adversary. “There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” Fidan told Anadolu Agency. He noted that the agreement’s mutual defense clause is technically comparable to NATO’s Article 5 collective defense framework, but added that any collective response to an attack would be tailored to the specific circumstances of the incident.

Beyond the mutual defense commitment, the pact is set to cover a wide range of security cooperation, including joint military training exercises, cross-border intelligence sharing, coordinated logistics support, joint threat assessment, and expanded collaboration between the three countries’ defense industries. Fidan also added that Ankara hopes to expand the bloc beyond its three founding members, suggesting that Egypt could be invited to join the partnership in the future.

This flurry of diplomatic and security activity comes as broader regional uncertainty has spiked sharply in recent months, following escalating tensions across the Middle East tied to the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, with renewed clashes involving armed factions across Iraq, Lebanon, and Yemen disrupting years of relative de-escalation.

In a significant step toward deepening trilateral security collaboration amid rising U.S.-Iran tensions, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey have formalized a landmark mutual defense pact, with senior leaders from all three countries repeatedly emphasizing that the agreement is not targeted at any regional or global power and remains open to new participating nations.

The historic Mecca Joint Defense Agreement was signed on Friday during a high-level meeting, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif putting their signatures to the document. Just one day after Turkey’s foreign minister Hakan Fidan publicly clarified that the pact was not aimed at Iran or any other state, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar echoed that stance in an official post on the social platform X on Sunday.

Dar underscored that the newly signed agreement is purely defensive in its core purpose. He noted that any other country across the region is welcome to join the pact provided it upholds the accord’s core principles and commits to resolving disputes through peaceful diplomatic channels. The agreement’s key collective defense clause states that any armed aggression against one of the three signatories will be treated as an attack on all three members. Dar explained that this stipulation aligns fully with the right to individual and collective self-defense enshrined in Article 51 of the United Nations Charter, and added that the deal formalizes the three nations’ shared commitment to strengthening strategic security cooperation.

Importantly, Dar also clarified that the new Mecca Accord does not override or replace any existing bilateral or multilateral defense agreements that the three countries have already signed with other nations or international blocs. Reaffirming Pakistan’s regional stance, he added that Islamabad will continue pursuing diplomatic and security engagement with all regional countries to advance the goal of long-lasting peace and stability across the Middle East and South Asia.

The announcement of the agreement was met with public celebration across the three signatory states overnight after the signing. Major landmarks in Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, as well as multiple cities across Saudi Arabia, were lit up with projections matching the colors of the three countries’ national flags to mark the occasion.

Each of the three member states brings unique and complementary capabilities to the new defense arrangement. As the only nuclear-armed state in the Muslim world, Pakistan boasts decades of extensive military operational experience. Saudi Arabia contributes massive economic resources and far-reaching regional political influence, while Turkey — a longstanding NATO member — brings a large standing military and a fast-growing, advanced domestic defense manufacturing sector.

Despite the agreement’s collective defense clause that echoes NATO’s Article 5, defense analysts based in Islamabad have urged against framing the new pact as a direct equivalent to the transatlantic security alliance. Abdullah Khan, a prominent independent defense analyst based in Islamabad, noted that while the agreement was finalized during a period of elevated regional tensions, it should not be interpreted as a hostile move targeted at Iran or any other nation.

The trilateral pact builds on preexisting close defense ties between the signatory countries. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have maintained robust military partnerships for decades, and signed a separate bilateral mutual defense agreement as recently as September 2025. Pakistan and Turkey have also rapidly expanded their bilateral military cooperation and joint defense industrial development projects over the past several years.

Eighty-one years after a U.S. atomic bomb turned the southwestern Japanese city of Nagasaki into a landscape of unspeakable destruction, city leaders, global delegates, and aging atomic bomb survivors gathered Sunday at Nagasaki’s Peace Park to honor the tens of thousands killed and reaffirm a urgent call for the total elimination of nuclear weapons. The solemn commemoration unfolded against a charged political backdrop: the newly formed Japanese government under Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has implemented sweeping revisions to national defense policy that expand the military’s offensive capabilities, stoking widespread anxiety that the government may abandon the decades-old non-nuclear framework that has defined Japan’s post-WWII identity.

BANGKOK – In a public statement released over the weekend, Myanmar’s military-installed government has pushed back against renewed demands from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to free detained former civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi unconditionally, and has ruled out retaining the bloc’s special envoy role for Myanmar after Singapore assumes the ASEAN chairmanship in 2027. The rebuke marks the latest strain in already frayed ties between the junta-led administration and the regional bloc, more than three years after the military seized power from Suu Kyi’s elected government in 2021.

Min Aung Hlaing, the former army commander who led the 2021 coup and was recently sworn in as president after elections held by the junta late last year, has spent years seeking to cement international legitimacy for his rule and normalize Myanmar’s position within ASEAN. In response to the 2021 coup and the widespread armed conflict that erupted across Myanmar in its wake, ASEAN drafted a five-point peace plan just months after the takeover, which called for an immediate end to hostilities, inclusive dialogue between all competing factions, and the deployment of a special envoy to mediate the talks. For failing to make tangible progress on implementing the agreement, Min Aung Hlaing has been barred from participating in ASEAN’s top-level leadership summits since 2021.

Last week, the junta administration took a small, symbolic step to defuse international criticism: it allowed an official from the International Committee of the Red Cross to meet with the 81-year-old Suu Kyi. The visit marked the first time the detained leader has had any confirmed contact with an independent international humanitarian organization since her detention immediately after the 2021 coup. Suu Kyi, who was convicted on a series of corruption and public order charges widely described as politically motivated by her supporters and global human rights groups, is currently serving a multi-year sentence under closed house arrest at an unconfirmed location in Myanmar’s capital Naypyidaw. The junta has previously commuted portions of her sentence on humanitarian grounds, but has repeatedly rejected calls for her full release from foreign governments and regional blocs.

In its official statement Saturday, the Myanmar foreign ministry made clear it would not bow to external pressure on the issue. “Although the government has commuted her sentences based on humanitarian considerations, the matter of a full and unconditional release shall only be carried out in accordance with the law,” the statement read.

On the topic of ASEAN’s special envoy mechanism, the administration said it would continue to cooperate with current special envoy Maria Theresa Lazaro, a Philippine foreign affairs official appointed by the current 2025 ASEAN chair the Philippines. But the statement added that the government sees no need to extend the arrangement when Singapore takes over the rotating ASEAN chair on January 1, 2027. “At present, the government, which emerged from the multiparty democratic elections reflecting the genuine will of the people, has assumed state responsibility,” the statement added.

The Philippines, current chair of ASEAN, responded Friday by welcoming last week’s Red Cross visit as a small but positive step toward broader dialogue and national reconciliation in Myanmar. But it also reiterated the bloc’s core demand, repeating its call for Suu Kyi’s “complete and unconditional release” and pushing for expanded access for independent groups to all political detainees held across the country.

In a recent public address delivered more than three months after his inauguration as president, Min Aung Hlaing openly criticized ASEAN’s long-standing peace plan, accusing some member states of unfair discrimination against Myanmar and stating that his administration would handle engagements with ASEAN members on a case-by-case basis going forward. The December 2024-January 2025 elections that brought Min Aung Hlaing to the presidency have been widely dismissed by international observers and opponents of the junta as a fraudulent vote designed to cement permanent military control over Myanmar under the veneer of a restored civilian government.