Iran on Wednesday accused Israel of “mass killings,” a day after pagers used by Hezbollah exploded simultaneously across Lebanon, according to the foreign ministry.
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The explosions killed 12 people and injured nearly 2,800, including hundreds of Hezbollah members, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
“Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nasser Kanani strongly condemned as a mass killing the terrorist act of the Zionist regime in Lebanon, targeting Lebanese citizens,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The Lebanese armed movement is part of what Iran calls the “axis of resistance” against Israel, the Islamic Republic’s sworn enemy.
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip, triggered by an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian Islamist movement on Israeli soil on October 7, Hezbollah and the Israeli army have exchanged fire almost daily on the Israeli-Lebanese border.
“Fighting the terrorist acts of the (Israeli) regime and the threats that arise from them is a clear necessity, and the international community must act quickly to counter the impunity of the criminal Zionist authorities,” Kanani added on Wednesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X that he had “condemned Israeli terrorism” during a telephone conversation with his Lebanese counterpart Abdallah Bou Habib.
Quoted by the official Irna agency, Iran’s representative to the United Nations, Said Iravani, said for his part that “the Israeli regime must be held responsible for this heinous crime.”
On Tuesday, state television reported that Iran’s ambassador to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, had been injured in a pager explosion.
The local Tasnim news agency said the diplomat “was injured in the hand and face” and that the device that exploded belonged to “one of his bodyguards.”
On Wednesday, the Iranian embassy in Beirut denied on X “rumors about the physical condition and vision problems” of the ambassador, adding that the treatment of his injuries “is progressing well.”
Iranian Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Kolivand also announced on Wednesday that his organization had dispatched “rescue teams and eye surgeons” to Lebanon to treat the wounded.
“If necessary, we are ready to transfer seriously injured people (…) to Iran for treatment,” he added, quoted by the official Irna agency.
