• DPM Dar accompanying PM Shehbaz on trip.
• PM’s trip comes amid US-Israel war on Iran.
• CDF Munir recently met Saudi defence minister.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday departed for Saudi Arabia to meet Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to discuss the Middle East tensions following the US-Israel war on Iran.

The Foreign Office spokesperson said that Ishaq Dar, who holds the portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, is also accompanying the premier.

Pakistan has intensified diplomacy following the Iran war — which was caused by US and Israeli attacks on Iran, killing its supreme leader and plunging the Middle East into conflict — with the PM Shehbaz and DPM/FM Dar speaking to their counterparts in the region as well as in the Gulf nations to play their role in easing the regional tensions.

Iran has targeted US bases as well as targets in Gulf nations, including in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, and has also closed the Strait of Hormuz, which has skyrocketed the price of oil — and warned that the world should be ready for $200 a barrel.

Meanwhile, Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman held a meeting last week in which both sides discussed Iranian attacks on the kingdom within the framework of the joint strategic defence agreement between the two nations.

Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed the landmark Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) in September last year, which treats an attack on either nation as an act of aggression against both.

In a statement posted on X early Saturday, Khalid bin Salman said the meeting focused on ways to stop the attacks, which he said do not serve the security and stability of the region.

He added that there is hope that the Iranian side will prioritise wisdom and reason and refrain from “wrong calculations”.

Saudi Arabia intercepted two drones headed towards the Shaybah oil field on Thursday, as Iran targets the facility again in its campaign to disrupt global energy markets.

“Two drones heading towards the Shaybah oil field were intercepted and destroyed,” a spokesperson for the country’s defence ministry posted on X.

It came after Saudi Arabia confirmed on Wednesday that it had prevented several drone attacks against the facility, which is crucial to the country’s oil production.

Speaking to Bloomberg TV, Prime Minister’s spokesperson for Foreign Media Mohsarraf Zaidi recently said it is unquestionable that Islamabad will come to Riyadh’s aid “no matter what and no matter when”.

Although Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has expressed regret over strikes in regional countries, Tehran has maintained that it will target those sites which are used to launch attacks on its soil.

The PM’s spokesperson Zaidi highlighted that Islamabad and Riyadh have always “operated on the principle of being there for the other”.

Following US and Israeli attacks on Iran, a video circulating on social media claims to show Senate Opposition Leader Allama Raja Nasir Abbas alleging that the United States used Pakistan’s airspace to launch strikes on Iran during a television talk show.

The claim is incorrect. The senator made no such remarks during the programme.

Claim

On March 3, a user on X shared an 18 second clip showing opposition politician Allama Raja Nasir Abbas being interviewed on a private news channel.

The post was captioned: “Pakistan is giving its airspace to the US and Israel to attack Iran. Listen to this Shia leader.”

In the video, Abbas appears to say: “I have spoken to my army’s top leadership several times, but still our military allowed the United States to use our airspace. This is very wrong, very shameful. Whatever is happening in Iran, the responsibility for that falls on Pakistan’s army.”

At the time of writing, the post had received more than 46,000 views.

Fact

Allama Raja Nasir Abbas did not make any comments about Pakistan’s airspace being used by the United States during the interview. In fact, the programme aired in 2024, well before US and Israeli attacks on Iran in February this year.

The clip circulating online was taken from an interview Abbas gave on July 27, 2024, to a private news channel. Geo Fact Check reviewed the original recording, which is more than 40 minutes long. At no point in the discussion did the politician mention Pakistan’s airspace being used by the United States.

Geo Fact Check also analysed the viral clip using the University at Buffalo’s DeepFake-o-Meter. The tool returned a fake probability score of 99.7%, indicating the video is highly likely to be generated using artificial intelligence.

Furthermore, Hive Moderation, an AI content detection platform, assigned the footage an aggregated score of 99.7%, which also suggests that the material was produced using artificial intelligence.

Visual examination also shows that Abbas’s lip movements and facial expressions do not consistently match the audio. This mismatch is another strong indication that the footage was manipulated.

Verdict: The circulating clip was manipulated using AI tools. Allama Raja Nasir Abbas did not make any statement about Pakistan’s airspace or the other claims attributed to him in the video.

Follow us on @GeoFactCheck on X (Twitter) and @geo_factcheck on Instagram. If our readers detect any errors, we encourage them to contact us at [email protected]

Images of animals will feature on the next series of banknotes from the Bank of England, as the central bank shifts away from historical figures such as William Shakespeare, Winston Churchill and Jane Austen over the coming years.

“Nature is a great choice from a banknote authentication perspective and means we can showcase the UK’s rich and varied wildlife on the next series of banknotes,” Victoria Cleland, the BoE’s chief cashier, said.

Bank of England banknotes have featured monarchs since Queen Elizabeth first appeared on one in 1960, while Shakespeare was the first historic figure to appear in 1970.

King Charles’ portrait will continue to appear on the next series of notes as well, the BoE said.

The BoE held a consultation on a change to the design of banknotes in July 2025, inviting views from the public.

The theme of nature was supported by 60% of the 44,000 responses, narrowly beating the category of “architecture and landmarks” on 56% and “notable historical figures” on 38%. Other categories included “arts, culture and sport”, “innovation”, and “noteworthy milestones”.

The new notes will feature wildlife native to the United Kingdom and will not include household pets, the BoE said. It plans to run a second consultation in the coming months, asking for the public’s views on specific animals to feature on the notes taken from a list created by British wildlife experts.

The BoE is not the only producer of banknotes in the United Kingdom. Notes are also produced by seven commercial banks in Scotland and Northern Ireland.