Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday shot down as utterly baseless a viral video clip involving an Iranian general who asserted Islamabad had promised to carry out a nuclear attack on Israel if it used atomic weapons against Iran.
Reporting to Parliament, Dar explained, "There is social media footage where an Iranian general was quoted as having said: 'If Israel nuke attacks Iran, then Pakistan will attack [Israel] with nuclear weapons'." He asserted firmly, "This is irresponsible and false news."
He continued to state that the false statement had gone viral on social media and was even quoted by a media organization in the United Kingdom. "From our part, there has not been such a statement. It was made up," Dar said again.
Reiterating Islamabad's long-held position, Dar emphasized that the nuclear doctrine of Pakistan is unchanged as it was laid out formally in 1998. "Even then we had said that it is Pakistan's declared policy. It is for self-defence. It is our deterrence. It was needed for parity, peace and security in this region," he clarified.
He appended a warning to the doubters. "Israel should not even think of looking towards Pakistan. Pakistan possesses enough might to retaliate to any malafide [act]. Our defence forces are in top gear," Dar said.
The foreign minister also talked about another very leaked clip, which claimed to be that of former US President Donald Trump, telling Pakistan to stay away from the current tensions between Israel and Iran. Dar explained that this video had been examined and was proved to be an artificial intelligence-generated video. "We checked it, it was an AI-generated clip," he affirmed.
Addressing Pakistan's stance on the wider Middle East crisis, Dar explained that the nation is in favour of the continuation and success of Iran-US diplomatic negotiations regarding Tehran's nuclear programme.
He told the assembly that Pakistan's foreign ministry launched its crisis management unit on June 13 to closely follow the events occurring in Iran.
Dar told that the evacuation of Pakistani nationals during the growing conflict had already begun. "We have already evacuated 251 students. Tonight, they will arrive in Quetta. There are more than 500 zaireen (pilgrims) there. Three hundred of them came by air to reach there while 209 came there by road," he said.
He also disclosed that Iran had approached Pakistan on June 14 with a request to help in the repatriation of 20,000 Iranian pilgrims who were in Saudi Arabia for Haj.
"We responded positively to this. Pakistan will grant them visa on arrival and receive them at Karachi airport. So we are playing our role," Dar stated, underlining Pakistan's collaborative approach in the ongoing crisis.
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