What happened: Iranian state media is seizing on a high-profile interview of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian with U.S. conservative commentator Tucker Carlson to advance false narratives about Iran’s nuclear program, support of terrorism, and the U.S. This includes the false claim that Iran never issued a kill order for U.S. President Donald Trump.
Context: The 28-minute interview was released on July 7, 2025, on the former Fox News host’s website (Trust Score: 17.5/100), generating 1.1 million views on YouTube and 2 million views on TikTok in less than a day.
A closer look: Pezeshkian’s claims, which Carlson did not challenge, were then widely covered by Iranian state media outlets, including the Islamic Republic News Agency (Trust Score: 7.5/100), Mehr News (Trust Score: 5/100), The Tehran Times (Trust Score: 7.5/100), and Tasnim News Agency (Trust Score: 7.5/100), among others.
Fatwa falsehood: Among the claims promoted by Pezeshkian was that Iran never issued any fatwas (religious rulings) calling for violence against Trump. “They have not issued decrees or fatwas against any individual or against Donald Trump,” he said. Carlson nodded as Pezeshkian spoke and then moved on to his next question.
Actually: On June 29, 2025, Grand Ayatollahs Naser Makarem Shirazi and Hossein Nouri Hamedani publicly issued separate fatwas against Trump.
A NewsGuard review of the text of the fatwas shows that both explicitly name Trump and label him a “Moharebeh,” an Islamic-Arabic...
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