Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was alleged to have developed a plan to assassinate Pakistan’s military chief Field Marshal Asim Munir, along with his entire delegation, when he went to Geneva, Switzerland, for the Iran peace talks. This claim was made by Brazilian journalist and geopolitical analyst Pepe Escobar but was rejected by a Pakistani journalist.
Pakistan is positioning itself as mediator in the talks between the US and Iran, and an initial agreement was termed Islamabad MoU. Talks for this MoU took place in Geneva and were attended by top officials like US Vice President JD Vance.
Escobar made such claims in a podcast hosted by Mario Nawfal, a political commentator and Internet user. Pakistani military intelligence had “intercepted” what he called “ultra-credible information,” he said, suggesting Mossad was planning to target Munir and possibly others in the Pakistani delegation at the same time as these high-stakes talks were going on.
Israeli officials voiced concern about the Iran-US peace deal and felt they had not been properly informed about it. Israel’s military operations in Lebanon were also a threat to the peace deal and thus Israeli officials maintained that operations would go on as Hezbollah, a militia funded by Iran, remained a threat.
Nawfal brought up reports of tension between Pakistan and Israel behind closed diplomatic doors during the podcast. Escobar responded: “Pakistani military got ultra-credible information that Mossad was preparing under Netanyahu’s orders an assassination attempt against Asim Munir and maybe the rest of the Pakistani delegation going to Switzerland.”
Escobar said in response to this Mossad plot that Pakistani officials communicated through diplomatic channels when they learned of it. “The Pakistanis sent a direct message through usual intermediaries—I would bet it would be Oman—to Israel saying, ‘If you touch our delegation, we’re going to wipe you off the map, period.’ I’m quoting what our source told us.”
Pakistan is the only Muslim-majority country with nuclear weapons and Israel is also recognized as a nuclear power.
Escobar’s claims remain unverified independently and have not been confirmed by either Pakistan or Israel’s governments. There is no supporting evidence for Escobar’s claims.
Munir’s alleged assassination allegations came a week after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took the lead in diplomatic efforts to ease tension between Washington and Tehran and Munir was part of that delegation.
Pakistani journalists have criticized Escobar’s assertions as lacking factual support.
Diplomatic Tensions Over Pakistan’s Mediator Role
Israel and Pakistan have long been enemies without a strategic alliance—and especially Pakistan does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state.
Earlier discussions about regional ceasefire talks have seen Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif harshly criticize Israel. He called it “evil” and “a curse for humanity” and accused it of genocide in Lebanon.
Israeli officials were quick to respond to these accusations by Asif by asking themselves whether Islamabad could actually act as an impartial mediator given such statements from top officials in government.
Pakistani Journalists Reject Munir’s Assassination Claim
Escobar’s accusations have also received strong rebuttals from Pakistani journalists. Many of them have dismissed his narrative as “baseless and unsupported by facts,” according to The Current, a digital news portal based in Pakistan.
Syed Talat Hussain, a prominent journalist, publicly debunked claims about an assassination attempt on Munir on social media platform X. “This is utter nonsense. Not even a shred of truth to it. Nothing of that sort actually happened.” Hussain said that a Pakistani security official described Escobar’s claim as “perverse propaganda.”
As of now, neither Pakistan’s military nor its government has released any public statement about Escobar’s claims and Israel has not publicly responded to them either. Without any official confirmation from either side, this assassination plot is at present an unverified claim.
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Syed Ziyauddin is a media and international relations enthusiast with a strong academic and professional foundation. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Media from Jamia Millia Islamia and a Master’s in International Relations (West Asia) from the same institution.
He has work with organizations like ANN Media, TV9 Bharatvarsh, NDTV and Centre for Discourse, Fusion, and Analysis (CDFA) his core interest includes Tech, Auto and global affairs.
Tweets @ZiyaIbnHameed
