The UAE has not frozen a contract for fighter jets from France over the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov

Claims that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has “frozen” a contract for 80 fighter jets from France over the arrest of Telegram CEO Pavel Durov are circulating on social media, as part of a fake Al Jazeera video. But there is no evidence to support this claim. 

One post on X, viewed more than 366,000 times, is captioned: “The UAE has frozen a contract to purchase 80 fighter jets from France: Durov's arrest has angered the sheikhs.” It has also been shared on Facebook. 

Mr Durov was arrested on landing in Paris on 24 August as part of a cyber crime investigation. Mr Durov is originally from Russia, but now runs Telegram from Dubai in the UAE, where he lives. He holds citizenship of the UAE and France.

The UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday 26 August that it is “closely following the case of its citizen Pavel Durov”, adding “that the UAE has submitted a request to the Government of the French Republic to provide him with all the necessary consular services in an urgent manner”. 

However, there’s no evidence the UAE has frozen any contracts it has with French manufacturers for planes. There is no mention of freezing a contract for fighter jets in this statement, or elsewhere on the ministry’s website. 

The Al Jazeera video being shared alongside the false claims looks convincing, using the same highlighted text as the organisation’s short videos and the same end screen and logo. However, a search through Al Jazeera’s website and YouTube channel reveals there haven’t been any reports about freezing the fighter jet contract, which the UAE signed in 2021. 

In a statement to Full Fact about the fake video, a spokesperson for Al Jazeera said: “The content circulating on social media claiming that the UAE has frozen the purchase of 80 fighter jets from France and attributing this news to Al Jazeera is fake and we refute this attribution to the media network.”

Al Jazeera did report on the arrest, and the UAE’s statement that it is closely following the case. It also previously reported on the 80 jet contract when it was signed in 2021, but has not reported on this deal since, or it being supposedly “frozen”.

The slightly unusual and stilted phrasing used in the faked video gives us a clue it isn’t genuine. For example: “The UAE has frozen the contract actions for the purchase of 80 fighter aircraft from France” and “That could be a serious image blow for the French military-industrial complex”.

It’s important to consider whether an image or video is genuine before amplifying it on social media. Our toolkit includes resources on spotting misleading content to help you do this.