After US and Israeli strikes on Iran, a video circulating on social media claims to show Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas claiming that the US used Pakistan’s airspace to launch strikes on Iran during a TV talk show.
The claim is incorrect. The senator made no such remarks during the program.
Assertion
On March 3, a user on X shared an 18-second clip showing opposition politician Allama Raja Nasir Abbas being interviewed on a private news channel.
The post had the caption: “Pakistan is giving its airspace to US and Israel to attack Iran. Listen to this Shia leader.”
In the video, Abbas appears to say: “I have spoken to the top leadership of my army several times, but still our military allowed the US to use our airspace. This is very wrong, very shameful. Whatever happens in Iran, the responsibility for it falls on Pakistan’s army.”
At the time of writing, the post had received more than 46,000 views.
Fact
Allama Raja Nasir Abbas did not make any comments about Pakistan’s airspace being used by the US during the interview. In fact, the program was broadcast in 2024, long before the US and Israeli attacks on Iran in February this year.
The clip circulating online is taken from an interview Abbas gave on July 27, 2024 to a private news channel. Geofact check reported the original recording which is more than 40 minutes long. At no point in the discussion did the politician mention that Pakistan’s airspace is being used by the US.
Geofact check also analyzed the viral clip using the University at Buffalo’s DeepFake-o-Meter. The tool returned a false probability score of 99.7%, indicating that the video is most likely generated using artificial intelligence.
Furthermore, Hive Moderation, an AI content detection platform, awarded the footage an overall score of 99.7%, also indicating that the material was produced with the help of artificial intelligence.
Visual examination also shows that Abba’s lip movements and facial expressions do not match the audio. This discrepancy is another strong indication that the recordings were tampered with.
Verdict: The circulating clip was manipulated using AI tools. Allama Raja Nasir Abbas did not make any statements about Pakistan’s airspace or the other demands attributed to him in the video.
