Iran’s Lebanon Ambassador Resurfaces After Pager Attack

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, made his first public appearance in Beirut since being injured in a September attack involving exploding pagers. Amani, who had been receiving treatment in Iran, returned to Lebanon over the weekend and visited the site south of Beirut where Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on September 27.

Regarding the airstrike, which destroyed six buildings and claimed the lives of Nasrallah and others, Amani criticized Israel, stating that it should receive the “highest medal for sabotage, terrorism, blood, and killing civilians.”

Amani had been seriously injured in mid-September when a pager he was holding exploded. This device was one of approximately 3,000 pagers that detonated at the same time, killing and injuring many Hezbollah members. The following day, a similar attack targeted walkie-talkies, leading to the deaths of at least 37 people and injuring over 3,000, many of whom were civilians.

A spokesperson for Israel’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, later confirmed that Netanyahu had approved the pager attack.