Claim: An image shows Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif standing with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu.
Fact: The claim is false. The image actually shows Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif with his Armenian counterpart, not Netanyahu. It appears to be a screenshot from a video of the meeting held between PM Shehbaz, Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan, and Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev at the 2025 Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm El Sheikh.
The Facebook post being fact-checked contains the misleading screenshot from the aforementioned video. Its caption says that the image shows PM Shehbaz’s brief meeting with Israeli PM Netanyahu in Egypt.
It further claims that according to insiders, Pakistan is “all set to recognize #Israel very soon [.] Bilateral relations will be established as both nations will open embassy in #Jerusalem & #Islamabad along with direct flights!!!”
The post adds, “Pakistan must recognise Israel! We have absolutely no conflict with the Israeli state and our Jewish brethren.”
This article only fact-checks the image in the claim, and the part which states that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif briefly met Netanyahu in Sharm El Sheikh at the Gaza Peace Summit.
2025 Gaza Peace Summit
On 13 October, a summit was held in a city in Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh. It was attended by leaders from various countries, including Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, led by US President Donald Trump. A peace agreement, aimed at ending the conflict in Gaza, was signed by world leaders at the summit, Al Jazeera’s report stated.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif also met other world leaders in Egypt and reiterated Pakistan’s support for peace in the region and solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check suspected the claim when we found another user posting a full image alongside the image in the claim, stating as follows:
آرمینیا کے وزیراعظم کی شہباز شریف سے ملاقات کی تصویر کو بلر کرکے ایک بیانیہ بنایا جارہا ہے کہ شہباز شریف نیتن یاہو سے ملاقات کررہے ہیں…
[Translation: A narrative is being created by blurring the picture of the Armenian prime minister meeting with Shehbaz Sharif that Shehbaz Sharif is meeting with Netanyahu…]
Taking cues from this, we searched for credible news reports of such a meeting between the Armenian leader and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Google. The results led us to a post on the official X page of PTV News, shared on 13 October, with footage of PM Shehbaz meeting his Armenian counterpart along with the President of Azerbaijan.
According to its caption, originally in Urdu, the video shows PM Shehbaz meeting world leaders at the peace summit held in Sharm El Sheikh in October. It also goes on to say that on this occasion both the leaders expressed satisfaction over the ceasefire in Gaza. The caption further states that Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan also joined them in the meeting and conversation.
A video of this meeting was also posted on YouTube by Armenpress, a news company of the Republic of Armenia, owned by the Government of Armenia. It was shared with the following caption:
“Փաշինյանն ու Ալիևը կարճատև զրույց են ունեցել Եգիպտոսում.միացել է նաև Պակիստանի վարչապետը”
[Translation: Pashinyan (Armenian premier) and Aliyev (Azerbaijan’s President) had a brief conversation in Egypt. The Pakistani Prime Minister also joined them.]
The keyframe at 0:07 seconds of this video is identical to the image being circulated in the claim, as shown below:
A user on Facebook claimed PM Shehbaz is meeting Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu.
This image is a screenshot from the video posted on their official X pages by PTV News and Armenpress.
The image in the claim, therefore, appears to be a screenshot from the video shared on X by PTV News and Armenpress, of the meeting between PM Shehbaz, his Armenian counterpart, and the President of Azerbaijan. It originally also shows the President of Azerbaijan within the same frame, but the image in the claim appears to have cropped him out.
Furthermore, a reverse-search of a screenshot from this video yielded an X post by TheAzeriTimes, which included a video of the same meeting between the three leaders.
According to this post too, the video shows Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan and Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif meeting on the sidelines of the Gaza Peace Summit in Sharm El Sheikh.
Most importantly, an article about the same meeting, published by BBC News Azerbaijan, includes the image being fact-checked. The 13 October report states that Azerbaijan’s President met PM Shehbaz in Egypt at the Middle East Peace Summit. The latter also spoke to his Armenian counterpart who was standing at the same table, the article added.
Moreover, on 13 October, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement saying he will not be attending the summit. According to a post by the Israeli PM’s office on X, Netanyahu did not attend the summit, stating time constraints ahead of a Jewish holiday as the reason. Therefore, the Pakistani Prime Minister could not have met him at the Sharm El Sheikh summit on 13 October 2025.
Soch Fact Check thus concludes that the image in the claim does not show Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meeting Israeli PM Netanyahu at the 13 October Gaza Peace Summit in Egypt.
Virality
The claim was made on a Facebook page called ‘Indian Reunification Association’. An Instagram page called htnworld also uploaded a post, saying Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Netanyahu will attend the “Sharm El-Sheikh Peace Summit — possibly the first time leaders of both countries share the same room.”
The false claim was also shared on X by verified users here and here.
It was shared here by another verified user who later deleted it, saying that the photo was not 100% clear. However, the user added, proof was available of a meeting being arranged between Shehbaz and Netanyahu.
Other X users made the false claim with the image here, here, and here.
On Facebook, it was shared here and here, while on Threads it was shared here.
Conclusion: The viral image appears to be a cropped screenshot from a video that originally shows PM Shehbaz talking to his Armenian counterpart and the President of Azerbaijan at the Gaza Peace Summit held in Egypt in October.
Background image in cover photo: r/armenia, Reddit
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