UPDATE - Russia strongly condemns Lebanon pager explosions as ‘another act of hybrid warfare’

ADDS REMARKS BY KREMLIN SPOKESMAN DMITRY PESKOV ON LEBANON PAGER EXPLOSIONS

By Burc Eruygur

ISTANBUL (AA) - Russia on Wednesday strongly condemned multiple explosions of electronic pagers in Lebanon that killed at least nine people and wounded many others, branding them “another act of hybrid warfare.”

“We consider this incident to be another act of hybrid warfare against Lebanon, which has affected thousands of innocent people,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.

“We strongly condemn the unprecedented attack on friendly Lebanon and its citizens, which is a gross violation of its sovereignty and a serious challenge to international law using unconventional weapons,” she added.

On Tuesday, nine people died and hundreds were injured in Lebanon’s capital Beirut and other areas in the country after wireless communication devices, known as pagers, exploded. The Lebanese government accused Israel of being behind the incident.

Zakharova said the organizers of the attack were “deliberately seeking to incite a large-scale armed confrontation, seeking to provoke a major war in the Middle East.”

She further said such “irresponsible actions” are “fraught with extremely dangerous consequences” as they further escalate tensions in the Israeli-Lebanese border area.

Zakharova went on to say that a comprehensive investigation is necessary to bring all those to justice “so that another act of terrorism is not swept under the carpet, as Western countries are trying to do with the investigation of the explosions of the Nord Stream gas pipeline,” referring to 2022 incidents involving pipelines between Russia and Europe.

Russia calls on all parties involved to exercise restraint and refrain from steps that threaten to further destabilize the military-political situation in the Middle East, she added.​​​​​​​

- Escalation

Later in the day, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov underlined that a thorough investigation must be conducted regarding the incident to uncover the circumstances.

He told reporters in a press briefing in Moscow that the investigation must also uncover those who are behind the pager explosions.

"After that, of course, this must become a subject of study by specialists in order to take measures to eliminate similar risks here (in Russia) and in other places," he went on to say.

He also said that the incident "certainly leads to an escalation of tensions," going on to define the region itself to be in an "explosive state."

"Such incidents, each of them, can become a trigger for the situation to get out of control," he added.