A photo showing two women kissing Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, also known as MBZ, the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), is fake and digitally altered.
BOOM traced the original image, which has been online since at least 2012, and found that it does not show the UAE president.
On January 31, 2026, Middle East Eye reported newly released Epstein Files include messages exchanged by convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein in the days following the killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. The article states that Epstein told a man named Anas al-Rashid he would not be surprised if MBZ had “set up” the Saudi crown prince over the Khashoggi killing. The 2018 murder of the journalist, who wrote for Middle East Eye and The Washington Post, triggered worldwide outrage and escalated into an international crisis.
The Claim
The photo is being shared with the caption, "In the newly leaked documents from the Epstein files, it has been revealed that Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Emir of Abu Dhabi,was a regular at Jeffrey Epstein on his private island. Bin Zayed supports Israel massacres."
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What We Found: Viral Photo Is Digitally Manipulated
Original Photo Does Not Show MBZ: We first ran a reverse image search on the viral photo and found the original picture posted on Facebook in 2012. The photo shows a different individual in the center, identified as former Moroccan footballer Marouan Chamakh, and the accompanying Arabic caption criticizes his poor performance in a match.
We also found the same photo published by Moroccan news outlets in 2013 and 2014 while reporting on football controversies in the country. Although one of the reports mentioned former Moroccan footballer Marouane Chamakh, we however could not find additional details about the photo.
According to BBC, Chamakh played for Arsenal, West Ham, Crystal Palace, Cardiff City, and Bordeaux. The footballer announced his retirement in 2019 after not playing for nearly two and a half years following his exit from Cardiff in 2016. The Cardiff City FC website says Marouane was born in Tonneins, France, to Moroccan parents and represented Morocco internationally, where he earned 65 caps and scored 18 goals.