Foreign Minister Blinken Denies The United States Knowing The Plan For The Hezbollah Pager Explosion In Lebanon

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Wikimedia Commons/US Department of State)

JAKARTA - Foreign Minister Antony Blinken denied reports that the United States was aware of plans for a deadly attack in Lebanon that led to a wave of explosions of Hezbollah members.

"The United States does not know, and is not involved in this incident. We are still gathering information and facts," Foreign Minister Blinken told a news conference in Cairo, Egypt, as reported by The Times of Israel, September 18.

A wave of explosions rocked Lebanon on Tuesday. Lebanese Health Minister Firas Abiad said the death toll had increased to 12, while another 2,750 were injured with 200 of them in critical condition, quoted from AP.

"In general, we are very clear and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further increase the conflict we are trying to resolve in Gaza," said Foreign Minister Blinken.

Foreign Minister Blinken also said the impact of the explosion was not yet clear on the operation of the Iran-backed Hezbollah group.

According to news website Axios, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant called US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin minutes before the attack, saying Israel would carry out operations in Lebanon, but did not provide details.

He quoted a US official as saying a phone call with the Defense Minister Gallant was an attempt to avoid allowing Uncle Sam's country to know absolutely nothing.

Yesterday, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also denied US involvement.

"The US was not involved in it. The US was not aware of this incident before, and at this time, we are gathering information," Miller told a news conference.

As previously reported, a wave of explosions rocked southern Lebanon, a southern suburb of Beirut known as Dahiyeh and the eastern Bekaa Valley, all of which were Hezbollah's strongholds.

"We consider Israel's enemies to be fully responsible for this criminal aggression," Hezbollah said in a statement late Tuesday.

"These dangerous and criminal enemies will surely receive commensurate retaliation for this sinful aggression, both from places that are taken into account and those that are not taken into account," the statement added.

Later, the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad was said to have installed explosives on 5,000 pagers ordered by Hezbollah a few months earlier. On Tuesday, the explosion occurred at about 3,000 pagers.