Masoud Pezeshkian AI image incident — Sep 2026

Following Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian's address to the UN General Assembly on September 23, 2026, a synthetic image began circulating online that falsely altered the contents of his speech. The manipulated visual depicted the president holding a pink school bag and a photo of children, which was used to propagate misinformation regarding the Minab school tragedy.

What happened

During his actual speech at the UN, President Pezeshkian held up photos of children killed during the Iran war to address the humanitarian crisis. However, the AI-generated image replaced the authentic photos with synthetic visuals and added a pink school bag, an object he never held during the event. The image included superimposed text questioning whether the children were considered terrorists, linking the narrative to the February strike on the Shajareh Tayyebeh school in Minab.

Verification by AFP using official UN video footage and photographs confirmed that the president did not hold a pink school bag at any point during his address. Furthermore, the image contained visual inconsistencies, such as the president appearing in a black shirt and tie, which did not match his actual attire. The image was traced to a Facebook page under the name "VityazCossack," which had labeled the content as AI-generated. Additionally, the Hive detection tool flagged the image as synthetic. This incident follows a pattern of AI-generated misinformation, including previous false claims involving Iranian footballers and school backpacks.