Claim: Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said that Iran attacked Israeli terrorists in Pakistan.
Fact: The claim is false. While speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF), Iran’s FM said that Iran attacked the Jaish al-Adl which is an Iranian terrorist group.
On 17 January 2024, RTE Urdu on X (formerly Twitter) posted an image (archive) of Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian with an Urdu caption,
ایرانی وزیر خارجہ حسین امیر عبداللہیان: ہم نے پاکستان میں جن دہشت گردوں کو نشانہ بنایا ان کا تعلق اسرائیل سے ہے۔
[Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said “The terrorists we targeted in Pakistan are from Israel.]
On 16 January 2024, Iran launched airstrikes in the Balochistan province of Pakistan, claiming to target bases of the militant group, Jaish al-Adl, in which two children were killed and three got injured. Pakistan denounced the attack as a “blatant violation” of its airspace and in retaliation, launched missile strikes into Iran on January 17, killing nine people.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check conducted a keyword search on Google. The results showed a news report by Al-Jazeera English published on 17 January 2024 titled, “Iran says attack in Pakistan targeted ‘Iranian terrorist group’.
According to the article, Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, speaking at the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said that air attacks in Pakistan targeted an “Iranian terrorist group”. He further said that the airstrike was in response to Jaish al-Adl’s recent attack on Iran’s city of Rask in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the article notes.
According to an Associated Press (AP) article, Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, emerged in 2012. It is primarily made up of Sunni militants from the Jundallah group. This group wants independence for Iran’s eastern Sistan and Pakistan’s southwestern Baluchistan provinces. These goals make it a common target for both governments.
Tehran Times also reported Abdollahian saying, “A notorious Iranian terrorist group, Jaish ul-Adl, took refuge in Pakistan and Iran has invariably informed the country’s officials about its nefarious moves.”
However, it is noteworthy that Abdollahian mentioned Israel while commenting on the attack on Iraq saying, “Iran will respond with force to any action taken by the Israeli regime.” His comment came amidst a discussion on Iran’s recent attacks in Iraq and Syria.
On 16 January 2024, according to reports, “Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) launched ballistic missiles at what it claimed were Israeli “spy headquarters” in Iraq’s Kurdish region”, hitting targets allegedly linked to ISIL (ISIS) in northern Syria, in a bid to defend its security and counter-terrorism.
There is no evidence suggesting that the comment about targeting Israeli terrorists was related to Pakistan. However, the Iranian Foreign Minister made a similar claim about Iran targetting Israeli terrorists in Iraq, in his interview at the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Furthermore, the Iranian Foreign Ministry confirmed the strikes in an official statement but has not mentioned anything related to Israel so far.
Official statement by the Iranian Foreign Ministry
Virality
The post received 243.5k views, 6.2k likes, and 1.5k reports on X. The archived versions can be seen here and here.
The false post was published on Facebook and the archived versions can be seen here and here.
Conclusion: There is no evidence suggesting that Iran’s foreign minister claimed to have attacked Israeli terrorists in Pakistan.
Background image in cover photo: Shutter stock
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