Amani (L) is seen at the memorial grave of slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh in April this year before the pager and walkie-talkie attacks [Anwar Amro/AFP/Getty]
Iran’s ambassador to Beirut has accused some European countries of having links with Israel’s string of deadly pager attacks in Lebanon in September, denying that the devices were purchased from Tehran or used for military purposes.
Mojtaba Amani was injured on 17 September when thousands of pagers, mainly belonging to Hezbollah personnel, exploded the following day, and hundreds more walkie-talkies in the hands of Hezbollah members also detonated.
The explosions – slammed as a war crime – killed at least 37 people, including two children, and wounded more than 3,000, deeply unsettled all Lebanese, even those who had no Hezbollah affiliation.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu this week finally admitted to ordering the attacks.
“Several European countries are accused of involvement in this operation when they [the devices] passed through them and the explosives were planted in them,” Amani told Iran’s official news agency IRNA earlier this week, without specifying which countries.
There have been probes in Bulgaria and Norway, and a company in Hungary is suspected of being responsible for manufacturing the pagers.
“There is another version of the story that says that the entire cargo of pagers was switched on board a ship, and the Zionist entity [Israel] changed the bill of lading with the same specifications and replaced these devices in the same condition,” he added.
Amani denied that the pagers were bought from Iran, saying the devices originated in Taiwan, which has in turn said that an internal investigation into its potential role in the attack had been closed, with findings concluding that no Taiwanese citizens or companies were involved.
Taipei prosecutors investigating suspected Taiwanese involvement in the blasts said that the pagers used were manufactured, traded, and shipped by the Frontier Group Entity outside Taiwan.
“Hezbollah has always been keen to purchase these devices from certain countries,” Amani said, adding that Lebanon’s radio frequency laws were also considered when ordering them. “To import devices that use electromagnetic waves, they must be registered with the Lebanese Ministry of Telecommunications so that their frequencies do not interfere with one another,” Amani said.
However, there had been reports in Lebanon that Hezbollah imported the pagers and walkie-talkies without going through Lebanese state authorities, namely the telecoms ministry.
The September attacks were unprecedented, and one of the deadliest Lebanon had ever seen.
The attacks came days before Israel had launched its wide aerial offensive on the country on 23 September, escalating what had been year-long clashes with Hezbollah into a full-blown war.
Many in Lebanon had questioned why the Iranian ambassador was in hold of a pager that was intended for Hezbollah and its fighters.
The group’s critics have long accused it of being an Iranian proxy and fighting wars on behalf of Iran, something both Hezbollah and Tehran deny.
“The use of explosives and military materials in civilian devices is prohibited and considered a war crime. This is a crime committed by the Zionists. It should be noted that this device is designed for information purposes only,” Amani said.
“Hezbollah members never used these devices for military purposes, and any claims saying they did are incorrect.
He added that the use of such pagers was widespread among the civilian population, and had been distributed to stores, shop owners, and educational facilities, including Iranian-run schools in Lebanon.
“I am not military personnel. This device was given to me to notify me of emergency situations,” he said, arguing that Lebanon had no alert system to warn citizens of potential attacks, unlike in Israel.
Amani revealed that the pager was in his office when he received an alert that sounded different to other notifications. The message read ‘You have an important message, press this button’, said the ambassador.
The explosion happened immediately after he pressed the button resulting in wounds to the right side of his face and his left hand, although his vision remained intact. Images were shared of him recently, some of the first since he underwent surgery after the attack.
The alert sent to the pagers prompting users to pick up their devices resulted in multiple eye, hand, and finger injuries.
As Lebanon reeled from the chaos, a second wave of attacks rocked the country the following day when walkie-talkies exploded.
“The Zionist entity thought that this strike was so deadly that it could break the back of Hezbollah and the resistance in Lebanon. This strike was in fact a fatal strike, but the Lebanese resistance emerged from this situation with its head held high,” said Amani.
“The strike that Netanyahu wanted to deliver with such malice [and a] crime war failed.”
Last week, Lebanon’s caretaker Labour Minister Mostafa Bayram lodged a complaint against Israel at the UN’s International Labour Organization in Geneva. The attack was condemned worldwide as an aggressive war crime against a civilian population.
