Petro on Iran Attack: “U.S support for genocide has ignited the World”

President Gustavo Petro seems determined to become a geopolitical isolationist. As world leaders followed events unfolding in the Middle East after the Iranian regime launched a retaliatory barrage of killer drones and cruise missiles at the state of Israel, the Colombian leader had his finger on the ‘X’ button. In what appears to be a calculated move to disseminate fake news, Petro reposted an image and text of Russian President Vladimir Putin from a so-called ‘Sr. Liberal’ (whose profile picture is AI-generated), and ‘X’ biography professes to be a Madrid-based “unique thinker and revolutionary.”

With 50K followers, Sr. Liberal stated on his social media platform that Putin was threatening the United States should a “minimum attack take place on Iranian soil” and that the Russian Federation “would enter into a war to defend Iran.”

As Israelis, Palestinians, and Bedouins hid beneath the Iron Dome during an attack by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, much of it directed at holy sites in the city of Jerusalem for Jews, Christians, and Muslims, Petro seized Sr. Liberal’s social media post to affirm: “Now that we are in the prelude to World War III precisely when humanity should rebuild its economy towards the rapid goal of decarbonization. The support of the U.S., in practice, for genocide has ignited the world.”

Making an indirect reference that Israel commits “genocide” against Gazans, and, according to Mr. Petro “with the support of the United States” an unprecedented military attack against Israel was taking place across the Middle East. Insteading of expressing solidarity with the peoples of Iran and Israel, the Colombian leader was scowering sensationalist social media.

After Petro’s statement, the Spaniard then issued the following statement on his platform: ‘Yesterday, the narco-president of Colombia, ate my tweet over some alleged statements by Putin that turned out to be false.’ Sr. Liberal then eliminated his post from ‘X’, but Petro’s statement remains and shows the depths to which Colombia’s Commander-in-Chief will go to stoke his protagonism on social media.

While Western leaders cautiously issued official statements condemning the large-scale attack by Iran against Israel, and called for a de-escalation of hostilities, the Colombian leader stated the following: “If only the people of Israel were high enough, like their ancestors, to stop the madness of their ruler.” Another direct message targeted to discredit Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Petro’s bombastic words contrast sharply with the official response from Argentina’s President Javier Milei, who expressed “solidarity and unwavering commitment to the State of Israel following the attacks by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The Republic of Argentina recognizes the right of State-Nations to defend themselves and strongly supports the State of Israel in the defense of its sovereignty, in particular against regimes that promote terror and seek the destruction of Western civilization.”

Paraguay’s President Santiago Peña also reiterated his people’s “full support for the people of Israel,” during “these difficult times,” and Chile’s Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren also highlighted that the South American nation “condemns the use of force and defends international humanitarian law, which protects civilian lives in armed conflicts.”

Even Mexico’s Foreign Ministry veered cautiously to the sidelines of the regional conflict, calling on both Iran and Israel to exercise self-restraint and “seek solutions peacefully to avoid a more general conflict in the Middle East.”

President Petro’s penchant for hyperbole and the former guerrilla’s unfiltered, near-obsessive reactions to breaking news, once again, puts Colombia in a questionable light. And to set the record straight, President Petro, the world “has not been ignited” and humanity is not “in a prelude to World War III.” To understand context, one just needs to read (real) news.