Lavrov says the US was already aware of “Israel’s” pager attack

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has claimed that the US was likely aware of “Israel’s” intentions to carry out a “terrorist attack against Lebanon using communications devices”.

He suggested that the complexity of the attack and subsequent leaks to Western media suggested possible Washington complicity.

Last week, a coordinated series of explosions occurred across Lebanon involving thousands of portable pagers and radio receivers simultaneously. This resulted in dozens of deaths and thousands of injuries.

The Israeli attack, largely attributed to the Mossad spy agency, drew international backlash. UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk called it a “shocking” and “unacceptable” act that violates human rights laws.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly on Saturday, Lavrov condemned Israel’s “inhumane attack” on Lebanon. He also noted that “anyone who still feels compassion is outraged that the October tragedy is being used for mass collective punishment.”

“Another blatant example of terrorist methods to achieve political goals is the inhumane attack on Lebanon, which turned civilian technology into a deadly weapon,” said the Russian Foreign Minister, calling for an immediate international investigation.

Lavrov stressed that Western media reports on the details and preparations “suggest to varying degrees that Washington was involved in the preparation of this terrorist attack and was at least aware of it.”

He added: “We understand that the Americans always deny everything and do everything they can to cover up any facts that come to light, as they did in response to the irrefutable evidence of their involvement in the terrorist attack on the Nord Stream gas pipeline “,” referring to the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September 2022, which stopped Russian gas supplies to Western Europe.

Norwegian man wanted in Israeli-led pager attack goes missing

In a related development, Norwegian police on Thursday issued an international search warrant for a Norwegian-Indian man, Rinson Jose, who is allegedly linked to the Israeli terrorist electronic attacks to Lebanon.

“Yesterday the Oslo Police District received a missing person report in connection with the pager case. A missing persons case has been opened and we have issued an international arrest warrant for the person,” the police said.

Jose, 39, the founder of a Bulgarian company allegedly involved in the pager supply chain, went missing on September 17 during a work trip to the United States.

Despite being contacted ReutersJose declined to comment on the pager case and has not been available since. His company, Norta Global Ltd, was investigated by Bulgarian authorities, but no evidence was found linking it to the manufacture or export of the pagers.

Dive deeper

To On September 21, the Hungarian government announced that intelligence agencies had conducted several interviews with the CEO of BAC Consulting, a Budapest-based company linked to the attacks.

Taiwanese company Gold Apollo said at the time that the pager model used in the Lebanon blasts was manufactured by BAC Consulting, claiming that the company had only licensed its brand to the company and was not involved in manufacturing the devices be.

CEO Barsony-Arcidiacono has not been seen publicly since the attacks. Neighbors report not seeing her, and she hasn’t responded to calls or emails from them Reuters. A visit to her apartment in downtown Budapest yielded no response, and her apartment, once accessible, is now closed.

Last week, the Hungarian government confirmed that its intelligence services had interviewed Barsony-Arcidiacono several times since the explosions. It classified BAC Consulting as a “commercial brokerage company” with no manufacturing presence in Hungary and claimed the pagers never entered the country.

It is worth noting that BAC Consulting’s website, which was taken down later in the week, offered little insight into the company’s actual operations in Hungary and the registered address was listed as a serviced office in a suburb of Budapest.