Recently, a Facebook profile named Tamanna Akhter Yesman posted the claim that “The US Department of State praised the government of Bangladesh Awami League President and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, declaring her the legitimate Prime Minister.”

See the viral Facebook posts spreading the claim here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), here (archive), and here (archive).

Fact-check

Rumor Scanner’s investigation found that the US Department of State has not declared Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina as the legitimate Prime Minister.

In reality, the claim was spread using a 2015 photo taken during the official visit of Reem Ibrahim Al Hashimy, UAE’s Minister of State for International Cooperation, to Rwanda. The picture shows her with Rwanda’s then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Louise Mushikiwabo.

On February 19, 2015, Rwanda’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation posted about the visit on their official X handle. The images in that post match the one used in the false claim.

The description of the post clarifies that the photos were taken on February 16–17, 2015, during the UAE Minister’s two-day official visit to Rwanda.

The same photo is also available on the Rwanda MFA’s official Flickr album titled “UAE visiting delegation/16-17.”

Further keyword searches on the official US State Department website produced no evidence supporting the claim.

Additionally, the Facebook account under the name “Tamanna Akhter Yesman” is fake. Rumor Scanner previously published a fact story on June 19, exposing how this fake account used the UAE Minister’s photo to spread political propaganda in favor of the Awami League.

Therefore, the claim that the US Department of State declared Sheikh Hasina the legitimate Prime Minister of Bangladesh is false.