In a big revelation on state television, a former IRGC Quds Force official on Saturday said an Iranian company had bought the Hezbollah pagers, which exploded nearly simultaneously across Lebanon last month. But, an hour later, the same channel denied his remarks on such purchases by any Iranian company.
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According to news service Iran International English, expert Masoud Asadollahi said these pagers were bought by an Iranian company. “They (Hezbollah) already had thousands of pagers. They decided to activate the old ones, but 3,000 to 4,000 new pagers were needed. They asked an Iranian company to place the order. Hezbollah said they couldn’t make the purchase as it would raise suspicions. That company negotiated with a famous Taiwanese brand that used to produce pagers and placed an order for 5,000 pagers. The pagers were delivered to the Iranian company, and were then given to Hezbollah,” he said on Iran’s IRIB News Network.
Asadollahi said the pagers should have undergone security checks, but were sent to the militant group without any scrutiny. “But they should have gone through security checks. No one thought that the pagers would become bombs. They were sent to Hezbollah without any security checks and Hezbollah used them. Fortunately, 2,000 of the 5,000 pagers were not distributed. We saw that in one moment, they all exploded together,” he said.
An hour later, however, the news channel put out a statement about his remarks. “An hour ago, an expert made a statement in a programme on Iran’s IRIB News Network about the explosion of pagers in Lebanon. Our follow-ups show that these statements cannot be confirmed,” it said.
Asadollahi is a state TV expert and former deputy commander of the Quds Force, which is one of the five branches of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Soon, Nour News, a media outlet known to be close to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, also wrote a response to his comments. “None of the Iranian companies have played a role in the purchase, transport, or distribution of the Hezbollah pagers,” said Nour News.
The deadly blasts, which were carried out by weaponising pagers to explode, killed at least 37 people and wounded nearly 3,000 across Lebanon. They were also responsible for suspending Hezbollah’s unique internal communications network, which is heavily dependent on electronic devices like pagers and walkie-talkies.
Source » news18