Viral video of Indian foreign ministry spokesperson threatening Iran

RATING JUSTIFICATION

The iVerify Pakistan team investigated this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted an audio forensic analysis and performed a reverse image search to identify the original source of the footage.

Multiple users on social media platform X shared a video on March 12, 2026, allegedly showing Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal threatening Iran with aggression if the latter was found to have attacked ships coming towards India. However, the clip is doctored through AI.

The US-Israel war with Iran, which has entered its second week, has sent ripples throughout the Middle East and beyond as Tehran continues to launch drone and missile attacks in the region.

The hostilities have also thrown global energy markets and transport into chaos with the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in world trade. On March 11, 2026, at least three ships were hit in the Gulf.

HOW IT STARTED

On March 12, an anti-Indian account on X shared a video of Jaiswal with the following caption: “Breaking News: Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson, MEA threatens Tehran for the first time. ‘There should be no doubt that India will first confirm that Iran is involved in doing such attacks, & if confirmed, Iran will get a reply harsher than Pakistan. India does not endorse terrorism & Iran will not be spared for any act of aggression towards India.’”

The post gathered 63,100 views.

In the clip, the Indian spokesperson can be heard saying: “To answer your question, India completely and unequivocally stands with Israel in this war. I believe Prime Minister Modi has made this clear multiple times, so there should not be any doubts.

“We have heard of conflicting reports that Iran has targeted some commercial ships coming towards India. As far as our position is concerned, there should be no doubt that India will first confirm that Iran is involved in such attacks and if confirmed, Iran will get a reply harsher than Pakistan. India does not endorse terrorism, and Iran will not be spared for any act of aggression towards India.”

The same video and caption were also shared by anchorperson Wajahat Kazmi on X, where his post garnered about 60,000 views.

Subsequently, the clip was circulated on X, as seen here, here, here and here; collectively gaining about 50,000 views.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its virality and keen public interest in the ongoing US-Israel war with Iran.

Inspecting the video highlighted several issues with the audio such as its pace and speed being atypically faster than a normal human voice, missing natural breathing pauses and lacking tonal variations — all typical markers of dubbed clips.

Furthermore, the clarity of the audio resembled that of a voiceover — clear and without any background noise— unlike speech that is delivered at a public event.

The audio of the clip was subsequently analysed using UnDetectable AI, which flagged it as “likely AI-generated” and gave it a score of being 28 per cent real.

Similarly, Truth Scan, another tool, said the audio was likely fake and gave it an AI probability score of 64pc.

A reverse image search subsequently yielded the original video of Jaiswal speaking at a press briefing. It was posted by Indian news outlet The Print on March 11, 2026, titled: “Live: Government of India briefs media amid evolving situation in Middle East | Oil | Gas Supply”.

In the original video, Jaiswal spoke about the evolving situation in the Middle East and issued guidelines for Indian citizens living in the region. He also detailed the ways in which New Delhi was working to facilitate and repatriate Indian nationals back home.

At no point during his media talk did Jaiswal mention anything about aggression towards Iran.

A keyword search was conducted to corroborate whether any credible Indian or international media outlets had reported such remarks, but yielded no results.

It did, however, show several news reports by Indian news outlets that covered Jaiswal’s media talk, such as by ANI, India News.net and The Times of India; none reported any remarks similar to those in the viral video.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral video shows the Indian foreign ministry spokesperson threatening Iran amid the situation in the Strait of Hormuz is false.

The clip is dubbed over through AI.

EVIDENCE AND REFERENCES:

March 11, 2026, The Print YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uHsFGxBblDU

March 11, 2026, ANI news report:
https://www.aninews.in/news/world/asia/india-assisting-return-of-its-citizens-from-iran-via-land-routes-through-armenia-azerbaijan-mea20260311215913/

March 11, 2026, India News.net report:
https://www.indiasnews.net/news/278915684/mea-says-welfare-of-indian-diaspora-utmost-priority-confirms-death-of-two-nationals-in-west-asia-conflict

March 11, 2026, Times of India report:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/middle-east-crisis-2-indians-killed-1-missing-after-merchant-vessels-attacked-says-mea/articleshow/129466489.cms