Iranian media chief acknowledges prior reports of downed Israeli F-35 jets were 'not credible'

The head of Iran’s state broadcaster (IRIB), Peyman Jabali, said on Tuesday that earlier reports claiming Iran had downed two Israeli F-35 fighter jets during the 12-day conflict between Iran and Israel in June were incorrect.

“Were we in the sky to witness the fighter jet crash? Were we behind the defense system? Someone from the military officials informed us, and then they eventually realized…that the information was not credible and gave us another piece of news,” Jabali told Iranian students at Shahid Beheshti University, according to Tehran’s Mehr News Agency.

“Media officials should not make their credibility dependent on the credibility of other institutions and organizations,” he continued.

The top Iranian media official acknowledged that the false reporting “damaged [IRIB’s] credibility.”

Last June, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion to degrade Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities that had become an existential threat to the Jewish state.

Some 200 Israeli Air Force (IAF) planes took part in the unprecedented military operation that targeted Iran’s military leadership and destroyed much of the regime's nuclear, missile and aerial defense assets. The IAF eventually gained aerial superiority over most of the Iranian airspace, including its capital, Tehran.  

Unable to halt Israel’s aerial operations, the Iranian military claimed it had downed two Israeli fifth-generation jets and captured a pilot. However, Tehran did not present evidence to support the assertion, and international military analysts dismissed an AI-generated image depicting an abnormally large F-35 as being inauthentic.

Janes Intelligence, a military analysis company, assessed in June that there was “no evidence that Iran has shot down any Israeli F-35s.”

Pierre Razoux, academic director for the Mediterranean Foundation for Strategic Studies (FMES), who authored the study, explained that aerial losses are “extremely unlikely, especially without photos. If it were true, Iran would be hurrying to unveil the photos.”

The Israeli military quickly denied that any of its planes had been downed and stressed that all planes returned safely home.

While confirming that the Iranian claim of downing Israeli F-35 jets was false, Jabali added that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had expected the Israeli strikes to lead to the collapse of the ayatollah regime in Tehran.

“He thought that, in his opinion, the end of the Islamic Republic would be on June 16 with the bombing of the Iranian Broadcasting Corporation,” the Iranian top media official said.

Following an unprecedented evacuation notice, the IAF bombed Iranian state TV during a live broadcast. The Israeli military stressed that the location was being used by the Iranian military and that Israeli forces attempted to minimize civilian losses during the operation.

Despite his criticism of the Iranian military, Jabali asserted that Iran had won the war against Israel.

“We were proud in the war, we were proud, we resisted, we stunned the world, we pushed the regime back for years. They may not say it, but the losses that the Zionist regime suffered were not just these buildings, and the Weizmann Institute and the missile bases, but its entire computing system collapsed,” the Iranian official claimed without providing evidence.

“Those who made the narrative of weakness prevail over the narrative of strength; those who did not see the capabilities, highlighted the weaknesses; those who did not see the reality…transmitted the signal of this narrative of weakness to the enemy,” Jabali further argued.

“That calculation and false image were not created only by the Zionist regime's think tanks and Western think tanks; we created it internally.”

While Iranian missiles were responsible for the deaths of some 25 civilian Israelis and caused material damage to Israel's Soroka Hospital, a Weizmann Institute lab and residential buildings, Tehran failed to destroy any of Israel’s strategic military or intelligence assets.