Claim: In an “explosive revelation”, CNN found that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government “surrendered” during the May 2025 conflict with Pakistan and that Indian officials called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio “twice and begged for a ceasefire”. This, the social media posts assert, lays bare Modi’s “masterstroke”.
Fact: The video shows CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson quoting Pakistan’s stance, not talking about a “revelation” by the media outlet.
On 11 May 2026, X (formerly Twitter) user @AthSal01 posted a video showing CNN’s Nic Robertson speaking from Islamabad to host Michael Smerconish about the ceasefire between India and Pakistan following the four-day war.
The accompanying caption reads:
“سی این این کا دھماکہ خیز انکشاف! 🚨 مودی سرکار نے 10 مئی کو گھٹنے ٹیک دیے؟ رپورٹ کے مطابق مارکو روبیو کو دو بار فون کر کے جنگ بندی کی بھیک مانگی گئی۔ روبیو کی اسحاق ڈار سے بات چیت کے بعد ہی جنگ رکی۔ سرینڈر مودی کا ‘ماسٹر اسٹروک’ کا پول کھل گیا 😊🎯
[CNN’s explosive revelation! 🚨 Modi government surrendered on 10 May? According to the report, [Indian officials] called Marco Rubio twice and begged for a ceasefire. The war stopped only after Rubio spoke to Ishaq Dar. The secret of Surrender Modi’s ‘masterstroke’ is out 😊🎯]”
Screenshot of the viral claim on X
In the clip, Robertson can be heard saying:
“… That that really put India on the back foot… it didn’t know what had happened. India, according to Pakistan, reached out to Secretary Rubio, reached out to the Saudis, reached out for the Turks, reached out to others to find a diplomatic off-ramp, got engaged — after that onslaught — in diplomacy.”
India-Pakistan conflict of May 2025
In May 2025, India and Pakistan engaged in the most intensive four-day conflict in decades, exchanging drones, fire, shelling, and missiles that brought the two nuclear-armed nations to the brink of an all-out war.
The conflict was triggered by the killing of at least 26 people by assailants at a resort in Pahalgam in the Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on 22 April 2025. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the attack, while Islamabad has consistently denied the claim.
During the conflict, India also sent Israeli-made Harop drones to Pakistan, which were reportedly shot down by the army. Soch Fact Check visited and investigated two crash sites each in Karachi, Rawalpindi, and Lahore; read our on-ground report.
On 10 May, US President Trump announced a ceasefire, which was then confirmed by Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and later by India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri.
Trump’s announcement came after US State Secretary Marco Rubio spoke separately to Pakistan Army Chief Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir, Foreign Minister Dar, and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
On the other hand, Pakistan expressed gratitude to the US, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif thanking Trump “for his leadership and proactive role” as well as Vice President JD Vance and Rubio “for their valuable contributions for peace in South Asia”.
Fact or Fiction?
Using reverse-image search tools, Soch Fact Check traced the original video to the X account of CNN’s Robertson, who posted (archive) it on 10 May 2025.
His full comments to Smerconish, the CNN television host, are transcribed as follows:
“Yeah, I was just talking to a source who was literally in the room where it happened, where Secretary of State Marco Rubio, I was told, played a massive role in bringing about this ceasefire, a ceasefire that, on multiple times today and even yesterday, because it was in the works yesterday, perhaps over the last 48 hours, as we’ve been reporting, Pakistan was sort of on a military pause to give a window for diplomacy.
“What I understand from the sources [is] that that was blown out of the window early this morning when India attacked three air bases. One of them here in the capital, just on the outskirts of the capital that, according to the source, Pakistan responded with a relentless, a massive barrage of missiles and rockets, they say — Pakistan says — into Indian military facilities, bases inside India, air bases, weapons storage, and along that disputed Line of Control in Kashmir against military bases there, they say, that — this [is] from the Pakistan perspective — their communications, how they were communicating with Secretary Rubio, that that really put India on the back foot… it didn’t know what had happened. India, according to Pakistan, reached out to Secretary Rubio, reached out to the Saudis, reached out for the Turks, reached out to others to find a diplomatic off-ramp, got engaged — after that onslaught — in diplomacy.
“But telling the mediators that they were going to go on a pause on the Indian side and then, according to Pakistan, that didn’t happen. There was another exchange of rocket fire. That happened several times during the day today and it was only in the last couple of hours before this ceasefire came into effect, just about an hour or so ago. That there was enough of a pause to call it and say that this was real, that enough diplomacy and leverage have been put on both sides to get them to stop here.”
The remarks about India reaching out to Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and others “to find a diplomatic off-ramp” is attributed to Pakistani officials. It is not an independent finding by CNN.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the viral social media posts are misrepresenting Robertson’s comment.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating on Facebook, Instagram, and X.
The misleading posts containing the authentic video gained more than 12,700 views on Facebook, where it was also shared in 2025.
Specifically, a post by Pakistani columnist Ali Moeen Nawazish garnered over 315,000 views in 2025.
On X, the posts raked in close to 250,000 views.
Conclusion: The video shows CNN’s Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson quoting Pakistan’s stance, not talking about a “revelation” by the media outlet.
Background image in cover photo: Wikimedia Commons
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