Fact-check: Claims of Pakistan calling Iran strikes 'legal' are baseless
No such statement has been released by the Pakistani government
Updated Friday May 03 2024
Viral online posts allege that the Pakistani government has called the Iranian retaliation strikes against Israel on April 13 legal.
The claim is false.
Claim
On April 16, a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, wrote: “Pakistan says Iran's attack on Israel was completely legal.” The post has been viewed over 400,000 times and reposted 1,900 times while it has been liked over 21,000 times.
Identical claims were also shared here, here and here.
Fact
No such statement has been released by the Pakistani government on April 13 or thereafter referring to Iran’s retaliatory strikes on Israel as “legal”.
On April 13, Iran launched large-scale drone and missile strikes on Israel in retaliation for an Israeli attack on an Iranian diplomatic complex in Syria. The next day, Pakistan’s ministry of foreign affairs issued a press statement expressing “deep concern” over developments in the Middle East.
The statement urged both sides, Iran and Israel, “to exercise utmost restraint and move towards de-escalation”. The press statement is available on the ministry of foreign affairs's website. Nowhere in the statements were the strikes referred to as “legal”.
Geo Fact Check further could not find any such statement being issued by the prime minister of Pakistan either on April 13 or thereafter.
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