Fact-check: No, Marco Rubio did not warn Israel about Pakistan
Event shown in the social media posts took place on September 15 in West Jerusalem
Updated Saturday Sep 27 2025
A graphic circulating online in Pakistan claims that during a recent press conference the United States Secretary of State Marco Antonio Rubio warned that Pakistan was waiting like a “wounded wolf” and could attack Israel if it made "a mistake".
This claim is false.
Claim
On September 18, a TikTok user posted an image of Rubio with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The image was placed next to what appeared to be a screenshot of a news report with the headline: “Marco Rubio has warned the Israeli prime minister that Pakistan is waiting like a wounded wolf for you to make one mistake.”
At the time of writing the post had been viewed more than 107,000 times, liked over 8,500 times and shared 250 times.
Similar claims were also shared on Facebook, X (Twitter), YouTube and Instagram here, here, here and here.
Fact
The US secretary of state did not make any such remark in the press conference.
The event shown in the social media posts took place on September 15 in West Jerusalem. Rubio held a joint press conference with Netanyahu, which followed Israeli strikes in Qatar on September 9.
Geo Fact Check reviewed the full 34-minute press conference and found no mention of Pakistan by Rubio.
The only reference to Pakistan came at the 31:17 mark when Netanyahu recalled the 2011 US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad.
The complete press conference can be viewed on the official YouTube channel of Reuters here.
Verdict: At no point did the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warn Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about a possible attack from Pakistan.
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