Misleading editor’s Netanyahu interview omits warning “Taliban takes over Pakistan”
After Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu launched an unprecedented bombing campaign against Iran in June 2025, fragments of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared in a false post, claiming it showed that he said the next step is to deprive Pakistan of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. The clip, taken from an interview conducted in 2011, overlooked Netanyahu’s clarification that nuclear weapons should not be allowed to fall into the hands of the Taliban in the case of “take over Pakistan”.
“Iran is the threat of Netanyahu after Pakistan.” Urdu subtitles of the video shared on Facebook on June 14, 2025.
The clip killed senior military commanders and scientists associated with its nuclear program the day after Israel launched its bombing campaign in Iran, suggesting Netanyahu was interviewed.
“I said that the greatest mission we have is to prevent the armed Islamic regime from meeting nuclear weapons or encountering radical Islamic regimes,” Netanyahu said in the clip.
Then he seemed to add: “The first one is called Iran. The second one is called Pakistan. Because if these radical regimes had nuclear weapons, they would not follow the rules that had been followed in the past nearly seventy years.”
Israel says its bombing campaign in Iran is to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing atomic weapons – Tehran has been denying its ambitions (archived link). Iran responded to ballistic missile attacks in Israeli cities.
Pakistan is the only Islamic country with nuclear weapons and “strongly condemns” Israel’s strike against its neighbouring Iran (archived link).
Iran and Israel opened fire for 12 days before the U.S.-promoted ceasefire ended the conflict. Tehran said the Israeli movement killed 1,060 people, while Israeli officials said retaliatory Iranian drone and missile barrage killed at least 28 people.
Screenshot was captured on July 8, 2025 and added a red X to AFP
The same clip is also shared elsewhere on Facebook.
“Isalah (God Will) Pakistan will be the reason for Israel’s destruction of Istara,” commented on one of the articles.
Another said: “Ala will protect Pakistan and Iran.”
However, the editing in circulation is misled.
Interviews in 2011
Reverse image search on Google using KeyFrames in fake shared clips led to a full interview, which was posted on the Israel Broadcasting Corporation Channel 2’s YouTube channel (archive link).
The video is titled “Interview with Benjamin Netanyahu’s World Vision”.
“Channel 2 and YouTube bring you a special interview with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu where citizens raise questions about the peace process, the turmoil in the Middle East, etc,” his description said.
Screenshots compare wrongly shared videos (left) and interviews posted on YouTube in March 2011 (right)
After asking Netanyahu, the wrong shared clip has been lifted from its 25:40 mark: “What is the biggest problem facing the next generation? What should we do today?” (Archive link).
His response was misledly edited to omit clarifications he made after he mentioned Pakistan.
“The first one is called Iran, the second one is called Pakistan, or more specifically the Taliban takeover of Pakistan,” he said.
His full remarks are also reflected in the interview transcripts on the website of the official Israeli Prime Minister’s Office (archive link).
Since the clash with Iran, there has been no official report that Netanyahu has issued any warning or threat to Pakistan.
AFP here debunks other misinformation related to the Iran-Israel war.
