As Hungarian Conservative reported earlier, on 17 September hundreds of pagers exploded in the hands and pockets of Hezbollah operatives. International media reports indicated that twelve people died and around 2,323 were injured in the explosions.
The licence owner and manufacturer, Taiwanese company Gold Apollo, announced that the AR-924 pagers ordered by Hezbollah were manufactured under licence by a Budapest-based company called BAC Consulting Ltd.
Although the manufacturing of the devices was initially linked to the Hungarian company, it was soon revealed that the company is only Hungarian on paper, and it does not have a manufacturing plant in the country. Nevertheless, the Hungarian intelligence services have investigated the case to get a deeper understanding of the events.
Given that the detonation of the pagers is believed to have been the result of one of the most extensive Israeli intelligence operations, it is no wonder that international public opinion is still preoccupied with.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó was also asked on the matter by the Jewish News Syndicate outlet on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. Responding to the question of what the Hungarian involvement in the exploded pagers could have been, the foreign minister said:
‘I’m really angry with this fake news being circulated, because these are based on lies. These pagers have not been produced in Hungary. These pagers have never been to Hungary. No Hungarian company got in physical contact with these pagers. We have nothing to do with the whole issue.’
‘These pagers have never been to Hungary’
Mr Szijjártó also highlighted that Hungary’s investigation indicated that BAC was involved in ‘trade mediation’, helping companies ink the deal.
‘They have helped the transaction to be made, but they never produced this thing. They never got in touch with it. They never had the physical connection,’ the minister insisted.
Relations with Israel and Iran
Péter Szijjártó was also asked about Hungary’s relations with Middle Eastern countries that are normally considered adversaries; in fact, Hungary is one of the few countries that have solid relations with both Israel and Iran.
Mr Szijjártó told JNS.org hat Israel is ‘a strategic partner, a strategic ally’ to Hungary, while Budapest has a ‘pragmatic, practical relationship’ with Iran, based on economic and trade cooperation.
‘It is obvious that on many issues, we see the world in a totally different way. We see the developments, we see the challenges in totally different ways,’ he said. ‘It’s not only Iran, but with all the countries in the world, that we still prefer the channels of communication to be kept open.”
Whether this could lead to a situation where Hungary would play the role of mediator between the conflicting parties, the Hungarian top diplomat said:
‘In case there’s an outreach from both sides asking us to do the job, we would be happy to do so. We are not a world power, so we don’t want to seem to be more important than we are. So in case there is a request, of course, we try to deliver but no request has been placed yet.’
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