Hezbollah device explosions raise alarm over Iran's vulnerability

The deadly explosions involving thousands of electronic devices used by Hezbollah members, along with the serious injury of the Iranian envoy in Beirut, has triggered heightened security concerns in Iran.

Iranian authorities are gradually responding to two separate attacks on Tuesday and Wednesday, allegedly carried out by Israel. They have condemned the incidents as acts of terrorism, vowed retaliation through the "Resistance Front," and called for enhanced security measures to prevent similar attacks against Islamic government targets in Iran.

President Masoud Pezeshkian posted a message of condolence to the Lebanese people Thursday on X for the “treacherous [act of] mass terrorism”.

The explosions in Lebanon that have so far claimed over two dozen lives and injured thousands are particularly alarming to the Islamic Republic whose nuclear facilities, scientists, and even a very high-profile foreign guest, Ismail Haniyeh, have been targeted by Israel in very complex operations over the years.

Reza Taghipour, a former communications minister, told the IRGC-linked Javan newspaper Thursday that the minimum takeaway from the past two days’ attacks in Lebanon for Iran is to use homegrown technologies or carry out standard physical, software, and electromagnetic tests to ensure cyber security if foreign-made devices have to be used.  

Mohammad Marandi, an advisor to the Iranian nuclear negotiations team in Vienna during Ebrahim Raisi’s presidency, has in several tweets since Tuesday warned Iranians about purchasing “Western, Taiwanese, Korean, or Japanese electronic devices, batteries, or other hi-tech products.”

“As we see in Lebanon, they can be weaponized against you and your loved ones,” he alleged in one of his posts. “The West is complicit. Western companies are untrustworthy, and their supply chains are suspect,” he tweeted Wednesday and warned about devices “produced in NATO or NATO affiliated regimes” in another post on the same day.

Iranian media also reported in the past two days that some Telegram channels that report military and security news allegedly affiliated to the Revolutionary Guards, including a channel called Sepah-e 27 Mohammad Rasoulolah, have claimed that according to a Hezbollah official, the Lebanese group consulted with Iranian authorities when it decided to ban the use of mobile phones.

The said channel has alleged that Irancell, one of Iran's major mobile companies, Kambiz Mehdizadeh, former President Hassan Rouhani’s son-in-law, as well as Pezeshkian’s Vice-President, Mohammad-Reza Aref were recently involved in procuring pagers for the Hezbollah. This allegation, however, contradicts the timeline for the procurement of the pagers that are said to have been obtained several months ago, while Aref came to the political scene only in July.

The IRGC has so far neither confirmed nor rejected the affiliation of the said Telegram channel or commented on its allegations. Irancell, however, strongly rejected the reports of its involvement in the procurement of pagers for Hezbollah in a statement Wednesday.

After a speech on Thursday by Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, during which Israeli fighter jets repeatedly broke the sound barrier over Beirut and bombed southern Lebanon, Iranian media published a message from Revolutionary Guards commander General Hossein Salami to Nasrallah.

Salami called the explosion of communication devices in Lebanon a “terrorist crime” and a sign of “desperation” and vowed a “crushing response by the Resistance Front” and “Israel’s total annihilation” soon.

These messages did not refer to the serious eye injuries of the Iranian envoy to Beirut, Mojtaba Amani, sustained when his pager exploded in the first round of attacks on Tuesday.

Amani was transferred to Tehran by the Iranian Red Crescent Wednesday with a group of Lebanese wounded in the attacks and visited by Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi Thursday.

“The Iranian envoy in Lebanon is constantly in contact with Hezbollah. This is not new at all. All our ambassadors in Lebanon were in contact with Hezbollah regarding various matters so it is not strange,” foreign policy analyst Hassan Beheshtipour told Rouydad24 news website Thursday.

“In my opinion, instead of reciprocating [now], we should first find out the details and block the infiltration channels. One must be innovative when it comes to reaction, that is, we must be innovative in the same way that Israel has been. The easiest thing is not to retaliate quickly," he added.