Provocative Poster with Iranian Hypersonic Missile in Tehran Is Not Recent – It Dates Back to June
The photograph of a large poster in Tehran showcasing an Iranian hypersonic missile was not taken recently. Although the accompanying post claims the photograph shows a recent even in Iran’s capital, the photograph’s origins can be traced to June of this year, several months before the attack Hamas’s attack on Israel
The photograph of a large poster in Tehran showcasing an Iranian hypersonic missile was not taken recently. Although the accompanying post claims the photograph shows a recent even in Iran’s capital, the photograph’s origins can be traced to June of this year, several months before the attack Hamas’s attack on Israel
A Facebook post containing photographs of a poster it claims were put up in Tehran in the beginning of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which recently started. This is not true. The photograph is taken out of context and does not present a recent event.
Posters are being placed in Tehran advertising Iranian hypersonic missiles:
400 seconds to Tel Aviv, specifies the post.
In the days following Hamas’s 7th October attack on Israel, online disinformation has been distorting the facts regarding the conflict. The old and imaginary photos and videos are being taken out of context and presented as part of the conflict between Israel and Gaza, as though they are presenting recent developments.
Such is the photograph shared on this Facebook post. It claims to be presenting a recent event in Iran’s capital Tehran, but the photograph was, in fact, taken this June, several months before Hamas attacked Israel.
Iran erected a provocative billboard in Tehran featuring the hypersonic missile named Fattah and a chilling message that reads ”400 seconds to Tel Aviv”, directly threatening Israel’s largest city.
The poster, however, was not erected recently, as the post claims, but on 7 June and it is not Iran’s response to the latest escalations of the relations between Israel and Gaza. The poster appeared on the streets of Tehran a day after the ceremony that took place on 6 June, unveilling the Iran’s alleged domestically produced hypersonic missile called Fattah.
The billboard with a threatening message written in both Persian and Hebrew, attempts to intimidate Israel, intensifying the already unstable relations in the region.
Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was present at the ceremony of the unveiling the Fattah missile (meaning “Conquer“). It is claimed that the range of the missile is 1,400 kilometres and is capable of travelling at a speed 15 times greater than the speed of sound. With its alleged capacity to avoid anti-air defence systems, Iran claims that the Fattah can attack any region in Israel.
According to Iranian State Television, the newly developed hypersonic missile can bypass even the United States’ most advanced anti-ballistic missile systems and “the Zionist regime” (as they put it), including the Israeli defence system “Iron Dome”.
During the unveiling ceremony date 6th June , the Commander of the Air Forces of IRGC, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, stressed that the Fattah can reach Tel Aviv in just “400 seconds, in accordance with the message on the poster.
Tehran has history of these kinds of threats, as was the case in November 2022, when the Iranian military forces expressed similar warnings when they announced their successful development of the hypersonic ballistic missile capable of manoeuvring within, and outside, the atmosphere.
This new missile – called Fattah or “Conquerer” – was presented after Iran said that it would reopen its diplomatic offices in Saudi Arabia, once it managed to settle the tensions with Riyadh after the multi-year conflict.
Posts with the poster published on 7th June 2023 can be found on the social network X (former Twitter), as yet another proof that the poster was not published as a result of the recent conflict.
The poster is real and it was erected in Tehran, but this did not happen recently and was not a response to Hamas’s attack on Israel, after which Israel threatened Hamas with a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. However, the post is manipulative when claiming that the poster was erected now and therefore we assess this fact-check as partial disinformation.
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