Viral Video shows Pakistani UN peacekeeping personnel, not soldiers being deployed to Saudi-Yemen border after defence deal

The iVerify Pakistan team reviewed this content and determined that it is false.

To reach this conclusion, iVerify Pakistan conducted a reverse image and keyword search to find similar videos and analysed the gear of soldiers in the video.

Posts from multiple Indian, pro-Pakistani, pro-military and PML-N supporters on social media platforms X and Facebook since September 18, 2025, were sharing a video clip, saying it showed Pakistani soldiers being deployed to the Saudi–Yemen border after the signing of a mutual defence deal with the kingdom. However, the video does not show any such development but UN Peacekeeping Forces.

On Sept 17, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia signed a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement (SMDA) in Riyadh, marking a significant step in their security cooperation. The pact commits both nations to treat any aggression against one as an act against both, establishing a mutual defence arrangement similar to Natos Article 5. This agreement strengthens their defence ties and aims to enhance joint deterrence against threats.

The timing of the pact coincides with rising regional tensions, particularly after an Israeli airstrike on Hamas leaders, leading to security concerns in the Gulf.

HOW IT STARTED

A known Indian propaganda account shared a video on X on Sept 19 with the following caption: “Breaking: Pakistan is deploying 25,000 its soldiers along Saudi Arabia-Yemen border to fight against Houthis after Saudi-Pak defence pact. Saudi Arabia will pay 3,500 Saudi Riyal per month to every Pakistani soldier and $6 billion loan to Pakistan. Now its Saudi-Pak Vs Houthis”.

The post gained 2.4 million views, 3,200 reshares and 16,000 likes.

The account shared the video with a similar claim again on Sept 22, gaining over 430,000 views.

The same video with similar claims was widely shared by other Indian users on X as can be seen here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here and on Facebook as can be seen here.

Waheed Nazir, the PML-N’s senior vice president in London, also shared the video on X with the caption “The departure for the protection of the holy land has begun.”

The post gained over 172,000 views and was also shared by many pro-PMLN users on X, as can be seen here, here, here, and here and on Facebook here, here and here.

Pro-state and pro-military users oalso shared the video on X, as can be seen here, and here, and on Facebook here, here, here, here, here and here.

The video was also shared with a similar claim by Hamari web, a local news outlet, but was later deleted.

METHODOLOGY

A fact-check was initiated to determine the veracity of the claim due to its high virality and keen public interest in the defence agreement signed between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.

A keyword search to corroborate the alleged development yielded no government statements or news reports from credible mainstream international, Saudi or Pakistani media outlets about any development of 25,000 soldiers to the kingdom’s border with Yemen.

A reverse image search yielded similar videos of Pakistani army soldiers in the same attire, featuring a blue hat and a blue badge on their right arm, at the airport, as can be seen here, here and here, but did not yield the original source of the same video.

Running the video through the web crawling features of ChatGPT and Google’s AI assistant Gemini also did not yield any original source, whereas various reverse search engines such as Google Lens, Yandex, Tineye and Pimeyes could not detect and search for the faces due to the blurry quality and low resolution of the video.

Conducting a forensic analysis on Forensically, FotoForensics, Attestiv, Hive Moderation, Deepware and other tools to detect any potential manipulation through traditional means or AI also did not trigger any flags that the video was doctored.

A keyword search for “Pakistani soldiers”, “blue cap” and “blue badge” yielded a February 13, 2019, news report by leading English media outlet Dawn titled “Islamabad meets UN Peacekeeping benchmark of 15pc female deployment”.

The report had a picture of a female Pakistan Army soldier with the same blue hat and said Pakistan had increased the deployment of female staff officers in its United Nations peacekeeping missions to 15 per cent.

The picture was of a female Pakistani soldier as part of the UN Peacekeeping Forces.

Similar pictures of Pakistan Army soldiers in UN peacekeeping garb were also found in reports from other media outlets such as Policy Wire, Daily Times and Arab News.

The same blue cap was also found on the official UN web store.

The formal roles of the UN peacekeeping military are to protect civilians and UN personnel, to monitor a disputed border, to monitor and observe peace processes in post-conflict areas, to provide security across a conflict zone, to provide security during elections, to assist in-country military personnel with training and support and to assist ex-combatants in implementing peace agreements.

The force is not a militia to get involved in conflicts between nations and to fight on behalf of one side.

Pakistan is the fifth largest contributor of uniformed personnel to UN Peacekeeping. It currently deploys more than 2,800 military and police personnel to the UN peace operations in Abyei, the Central African Republic, Congo, Cyprus, Somalia, South Sudan and Western Sahara.

One of the older videos had a caption claiming it was filmed at Islamabad Airport.

Comparing a screenshot from the viral video with an image of the airport’s entrance showed that the lighting installation had the same colour combination using white and yellow, confirming that the viral video was shot at Islamabad Airport.

Therefore, even though the origin and original context of the viral video could not be determined, it is visually clear that it shows Pakistani soldiers part of the UN Peacekeeping Forces and not any other contingent or deployment.

FACT-CHECK STATUS: FALSE

The claim that a viral video clip shows Pakistan army soldiers being deployed to the Saudi-Yemen border is false.

The video shows Pakistani soldiers as part of the UN Peacekeeping Forces and no evidence exists otherwise for 25,000 soldiers being deployed to the kingdom’s border with Yemen.