Claim: Visuals show Pakistani fighter jets escorting the Iranian delegation as they travel to Islamabad to discuss the terms for a two-week ceasefire between Iran and the United States.
Fact: The visuals are old and unrelated. One video actually shows Pakistani jets escorting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in February 2019. The second was posted as early as April 2025 and the third picture was generated using Google’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools.
On 9 April 2026, Instagram account @globalreports.ig posted (archive) a video showing fighter jets escorting an aeroplane alongside the following caption:
“Pakistani fighter jets spotted over Bandar Abbas, Iran, to escort the Iranian delegation to Pakistan safely. Pakistan Air Force has established a ‘protective shield’ across Iran and Persian Gulf supported by fighter jets & AWACS to protect Iranian delegation from any misadventure by Israel. The Iranian delegation, likely led by [the] speaker of Iran’s parliament, will arrive in Islamabad tonight for talks with [the] US.”
On 10 April, a different video — apparently shot by a pilot from the cockpit — was posted (archive) by Facebook page ‘Sun News HD’, showing fighter jets in a formation. It is captioned as follows:
“ایرانی وفد کے تحفظ کے لیے غیر معمولی سیکیورٹی پاکستانی فضائیہ ہائی الرٹ پر ، ‘حفاظتی شیلڈ’ قائم
[Extraordinary security for the protection of the Iranian delegation, Pakistan Air Force on high alert, ‘safety shield’ established]”
A third visual — posted (archive) by Facebook user ‘Irfan Qamar’ — is a picture showing three Pakistani fighter jets and an Iranian aeroplane.
Pakistan mediates ceasefire, hosts peace talks
Towards the end of the US-Israel war against Iran that started on 28 February and lasted over five weeks, US President Donald Trump repeatedly threatened the Islamic Republic with destruction.
On 7 April, he went as far as to say that “a whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Iran did not give in.
However, Pakistan-led mediation efforts eventually culminated in a two-week ceasefire on 8 April, with the “Islamabad Talks” initially scheduled for 10 April, according to an announcement by Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. The talks are now reportedly set to take place on 11 April.
Sharif expressed “deepest and sincere gratitude to our brotherly countries” — Türkiye, China, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia — “for extending invaluable and all out support” in achieving the ceasefire. He also thanked members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
Preparations in Pakistan are underway to receive the foreign delegations, with the one from the US led by Vice President JD Vance including President Donald Trump’s Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, as well as his son-in-law Jared Kushner, as confirmed by White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Tehran is sending Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi but it remains “unclear whether any representative from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — which is leading Tehran’s military response in the war — will attend the talks”, Al Jazeera reported.
Dawn reported that “10,000 security personnel have been deployed” in Islamabad and a “Blue Book” protocol — which concerns the president, prime minister, and visiting heads of state — is in place. It added that “all roads to [the] red zone, except for Margalla, [have been] sealed”.
“About 6,000 personnel of the capital police, 900 Frontier Constabulary, and 3,000 personnel of the Punjab Constabulary, along with the Rangers and Pakistan Army troops, would perform duties. About 1,000 traffic police officials would also be deployed,” the publication stated.
Al Jazeera added that the delegations would be staying in Islamabad’s Serena Hotel and that 9 and 10 April have been declared as “public holidays in the federal capital”.
Fact or Fiction?
Soch Fact Check reverse-searched keyframes from the viral video and found it to be old and unrelated.
The clip, shared online on 18 February 2019, actually shows Pakistani jets escorting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman — commonly known by his initials MbS — when he visited the country a day before.
In its 18 February 2019 report attributed to Reuters’ wire service, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) wrote, “After arrival in Islamabad, the prince said Saudi Arabia had signed investment agreements totaling more than $20 billion with Pakistan.”
A reverse-image search for the second video led us to a 22 April 2025 post by Instagram user @its.jetlagsam, who wrote:
“Our brave soldiers are working hard everyday to protect the skies of our motherland everyday & serve fantastic tea to our uninvited guests ✈️ **Credit of this video recording goes to its rightful owner.”
While it is unclear who originally shot the video or when it was first uploaded online, it is evident that the clip is old and unrelated.
To check if the third picture contains SynthID, an imperceptible watermark embedded in all content generated by Google’s AI tools, we ran it through a dedicated detector, which currently works through Gemini in Pakistan.
The SynthID Detector confirmed that the photo was made with Google AI, with a “very high” confidence level.
Soch Fact Check, therefore, concludes that the viral visuals are old and unrelated to the Iranian delegation.
Virality
Soch Fact Check found the claim circulating here, here, here, and here on Facebook, here, here, and here on Threads, and here, here, and here on Instagram.
It was also shared here, here, and here on X (formerly Twitter).
One post on the same platform gained over 1.5 million views and the user, when questioned about its authenticity, admitted that the video was not recent but still did not delete it.
The video was also shared on YouTube.
Conclusion: The visuals are old and unrelated. One video actually shows Pakistani jets escorting Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in February 2019. The second was posted as early as April 2025 and the third picture was generated using Google AI.
Background image in cover photo: Muhammad Shayan
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