UPDATE - Bulgaria strongly rejects links to pager blasts in Lebanon, Syria

CHANGED HEADLINE AND DECK, ADDED PM'S REMARKS

By Ahmet Gencturk

ATHENS (AA) - Bulgaria strongly denied any connection to the paper explosions in Lebanon and Syria, as reported by local media on Friday.

"Bulgaria has nothing to do with the manufacture and transit of the pagers that have been detonated in Lebanon and Syria," Bulgarian caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev was quoted as saying by the state-run BTA news agency.

*He added that the country is also not involved in the customs clearance of the goods.

Glavchev's remarks came in response to a report by Hungarian news outlet Telex that the sale of the pagers to Hezbollah, which has killed 37 people and injured over 3,000 in Lebanon and Syria, was facilitated by Sofia-based company Norta Global Ltd.

"The only thing that happened were invoiced cash flows. The banks require that the invoices should specify the reason for the transfer. The invoices state that the payments were made for services and not for goods," Glavchev argued.

Maintaining that the case could have no bearing on Bulgarian foreign policy, he added, "The company is owned by a Norwegian national who has never visited Bulgaria. The cash flows for services that have passed through Bulgaria are completely unrelated to the goods in question."

Earlier on Friday, Bulgaria's State Agency for National Security (DANS) said a joint check with the Interior Ministry and the National Customs Agency determined that communication devices similar to those detonated in Lebanon and Syria have not been imported, exported or manufactured in Bulgaria.

The news agency added that it did not detect the involvement of Norta Global EOOD in any financial operations that qualify as terrorist financing, nor did it trade with any UN- and EU-sanctioned individuals.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, 37 people were killed and more than 3,250 others, including women and children, injured in a series of explosions involving wireless communication devices, including pagers and two-way radios. Beirut and Hezbollah have blamed Israel for the attacks.

Multiple media outlets reported that Israel placed small explosive charges inside imported pager devices before they reached Lebanon and then this week detonated them remotely.

Israel has remained silent on the deadly attacks. The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu distanced itself from a post on X by his advisor, Topaz Luk, which hinted at Tel Aviv’s responsibility for the explosions before it was deleted.

Numerous countries have condemned the pager explosions and expressed solidarity with Lebanon, while international human rights groups, including Human Rights Watch, warned that such attacks endanger civilian lives and violate the laws of war.

The explosions have heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah amid the ongoing Gaza conflict, where over 41,300 people, mostly women and children, have been killed since Hamas launched a cross-border attack on Oct. 7.