A top Iranian military official has publicly laid the blame for the pager explosions squarely on Hezbollah, claiming the Lebanese group ignored security warnings in favor of obtaining “cheaper” devices.

 

Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the Deputy Commander for Coordination Affairs of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), delivered the rare public criticism in an interview with Iranian media.

 

Naqdi claimed that Iran had specifically cautioned Hezbollah against purchasing the handheld devices that were later implicated in the mass attack. He was quoted saying that Hezbollah operatives had been warned against buying the pagers from a “suspicious source” but proceeded anyway.

 

"They said the pagers were cheaper than the Iranian ones," Naqdi asserted.

 

The Catastrophic Breach

The pagers and walkie-talkies exploded in an ‘Israeli’ attack in September 2024, nicknamed as Operation Grim Beeper.

 

The attack involved the simultaneous detonation of thousands of devices across Lebanon and Syria, resulting in at least 42 deaths and over 3,500 injuries, including members of Hezbollah and civilians.

 

The event was widely recognized as Hezbollah's most significant security breach since the conflict with ‘Israel’ escalated in October 2023.

 

Hezbollah had adopted the low-tech pagers in an attempt to circumvent sophisticated ‘Israeli’ electronic surveillance, which often tracks mobile phone signals.

 

However, the devices were successfully compromised. Investigations suggest the pagers contained small quantities of the explosive PETN, likely inserted via a sophisticated supply chain interdiction operation involving shell companies, such as BAC Consulting in Hungary, linked to intelligence efforts.

 

Following the explosions, the IRGC itself ordered an immediate, sweeping ban on the use of similar communication devices among its vast 190,000 personnel.