Fact check: Viral video of Pakistani envoy calling out Israel at UN is old, unlinked to ME conflict
Multiple users and journalists on social media platform X have been sharing a video since Tuesday, claiming that it shows Pakistani Ambassador Asim Iftikhar calling out Israel at a UN Security Council session amid the ongoing situation in the Middle East. However, the clip is old from September 2025.
Pakistan stepped into the role of a mediator in the US-Israel war with Iran, successfully brokering a critical ceasefire between the warring sides on April 8, 2026. The South Asian country also hosted the first round of talks between Washington and Tehran on April 11-12, which ended inconclusively.
During this time, Pakistan has consistently called for peace at the UNSC while criticising aggressive actions by Israel in Gaza, Iran and Lebanon.
How it started
A day ago, a Turkish user on X shared a video showing Ambassador Ahmad speaking at the UNSC
“The Pakistani ambassador, showing Israel its place at the UN General Assembly, said the following: ‘Israel is an occupier and a brigand that plays the victim card, violates UN resolutions, and practices state terrorism in Gaza and even on Palestinian lands’,” reads the caption, which gathered 499,100 views.
In the clip, the Pakistani envoy can be heard delivering a sharp rebuke to his Israeli counterpart, highlighting Tel Aviv’s aggression in Gaza and other Palestinian territories.
The post did not mention when the session was from, nor any other specific details about it.
American political commentator Jackson Hinke shared the video with the same caption. His post racked up 365,000 views and collected 26,000 likes.
Shireen Mazari, the former human rights minister, too, shared the same clip with the following caption: “An excellent response by Pakistan stated without histrionics in a logical, understated but powerful statement. Teaching rogue entity Israel a few lessons.”
Her post collected 32,400 views.
Journalist Matiullah Jan also shared the clip with the caption: “Israel’s Iron Dome didn’t see this coming from Pakistan.”
His post accumulated 1.1 million views.
Another journalist, Tariq Mateen, also shared the video in a similar context.
“Respect! Nothing but respect for Janab Asim Iftikhar sahab. Hello Khawaja Asif sahab, this is how it is done,” reads the caption of the post, which attracted 73,000 views.
Subsequently, other X users, including journalists and Indian users, also shared the claim and video, as seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here; collectively gaining 537,700 views.
Digital media outlet Pakistan Connect posted the same clip with the following caption on Instagram: “Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, strongly criticised Israel at the UN, calling its actions a violation of international law and the UN Charter. He said it was unacceptable for an aggressor and occupying power to misuse the forum and level baseless allegations against others while deflecting attention from its own actions, adding that such conduct undermines the sanctity of the UN Security Council.”
The post gained 19,000 views.
Methodology
A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the Mideast war and Pakistan’s key role in mediation efforts.
A keyword search to corroborate the incident did not yield any recent news reports from credible mainstream international or Pakistani media outlets.
Instead, a reverse image search yielded a YouTube video dated September 15, 2025, shared by Pakistan’s mission to the UN titled: “Pakistan hits back: Rejects Israel’s unrelated smears during Qatar debate”.
On September 9, 2025, Israel targeted Hamas leaders in strikes on the Qatari capital, killing five Hamas members and a Qatari security officer. The attack drew widespread international condemnation, including from Gulf monarchies allied with the United States, Israel’s main backer.
A comparison of the YouTube video and the viral clip revealed that the latter shows the first 5:37 minutes of the original speech.
In his speech, at the 5:52-minute mark, the Pakistani ambassador reads the UN Security Council resolution as “members of the Security Council express their condemnation of the recent strike on Doha, the territory of a key mediator, on September 9”, and does not mention at any point the US-Israel war on Iran, which shows the session was unrelated to the current crisis in the Middle East.
During the meeting, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon invoked Osama bin Laden’s killing in Pakistan to justify Israel’s actions in Doha, sparking a response from the Pakistani envoy, who called the comparison “unacceptable” and called out Tel Aviv for deflecting attention from its own violations of international law.
The same UNSC session was also covered by Dawn and Capital TV on their YouTube channels in September 2025, in the context of the Qatar attacks.
Furthermore, a keyword search yielded a news report by Dawn dated September 12, 2025, with the headline: “Pakistan, Israel trade barbs at UNSC over attack in Doha.”
The report confirmed that the heated exchange between Pakistan and Israel’s ambassadors took place on September 12, 2025, and is unrelated to the current conflict between Israel and Iran.
Fact-check status: Misleading
The claim that a viral video shows Pakistani Ambassador Asim Iftikhar assailing an Israeli envoy at a UNSC meeting is misleading.
The viral video is old, from September 2025, and is unrelated to the current Mideast conflict.
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This fact check was originally published by iVerify Pakistan — a project of CEJ-IBA and UNDP.