Blinken urges restraint after deadly explosions in Lebanon
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering in College Park, MD, U.S., August 9, 2021. (Reuters Photo)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for restraint on Wednesday following pager explosions that killed at least 12 people and injured nearly 2,800 others in Lebanon.
Speaking at a press conference in Egypt, Blinken stressed the need to “avoid taking steps that could further escalate conflict” between Israel and the Hezbollah group.
The top diplomat said the US is still gathering information on what happened in Lebanon.
“It’s important to fully understand what happened there,” Blinken added.
The pagers, wireless telecommunications devices, exploded Tuesday in several areas in Lebanon, including the capital Beirut, which Lebanese media suggested was an Israeli breach of the system.
Lebanese security sources said that Israel’s spy agency Mossad planted explosives inside the pagers used by Hezbollah members months before they exploded.
The wireless devices “were rigged with several grams of hard-to-detect explosives, placed in the battery in a way that ensures they can’t be detected by sensors or any explosive detection tools,” Mounir Shehada, the Lebanese government’s former coordinator with the UN peacekeeping mission UNIFIL, told Anadolu.
Hadi Hachem, Lebanon’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the pager blasts an “aggression which rises to a war crime,” warning that it would exacerbate the conflict.
There was no comment from Israel on the pager blasts, but Hezbollah vowed to retaliate against Tel Aviv following the explosions.
The pager blasts came amid mounting border escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, which have been engaged in cross-border warfare since the start of Tel Aviv’s deadly war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed over 41,000 people, mostly women and children, following a Hamas attack last Oct. 7.
