US congressman Paul Gosar tweets fake picture of Barack Obama with Iran president

A Republican congressman tweeted a faked picture of the former US president Barack Obama shaking hands with Iran president Hassan Rouhani – who he never met.

Representative for Arizona Paul A Gosar posted the doctored image in an attempt to criticise Mr Obama’s time in office and his Iran policy.

He posted the tweet on Monday afternoon under the caption: “The world is a better place without these guys in power.”

However, Mr Obama and Mr Rouhani never met in person, with Mr Obama leaving office in 2017.

It was quickly pointed out to the GOP member by commenters that the photo – which appears to show the pair posing while shaking hands and smiling – had been doctored.

The falsified image was debunked more than four years ago.

The real photo is of Obama meeting with the then-Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2011.

Mr Gosar called those who questioned him about the photo “the dimmest” and then implied he knew it was fake, standing by his statement.

Democratic colleagues criticised Mr Gosar for peddling in “disinformation”.

A conservative political group used the picture in 2015 in a television advertisement to promote a Republican senator and it is widely circulated on the internet.

The latest tweet is at least the third time in the last two months Mr Gosar has published conspiracy theories or misinformation, according to The Washington Post.

There were reports he gave credence to the belief by a certain portion of the internet that the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein “didn’t kill himself”.

He also pushed a conspiracy theory suggesting billionaire George Soros’s son was the whistleblower who triggered the House of Representative’s impeachment inquiry into Donald Trump.

Mr Gosar has since deleted the tweet.

Mr Obama did speak to Ruhani, but by telephone in 2013, becoming the first US leader since 1979 to have direct contact with the country’s leader.

The Obama administration negotiated the Iran Nuclear Deal which was finalised in 2015 and got Iran to agree to limit its capabilities to make atomic bombs.

Following his meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Mr Trump said he would meet with Rouhani “anytime they want”.

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