Iran's ambassador to Lebanon reappears after pager attack

Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon made his first public appearance in Beirut since he was wounded in an attack involving exploding pagers in mid-September.

Mojtaba Amani, who returned to Lebanon over the weekend after undergoing treatment in Iran, visited on Tuesday the scene south of Beirut where Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Sept. 27.

Speaking about the airstrike that destroyed six buildings and killed Nasrallah and others, Amani said Israel should get for its act "the highest medal for sabotage, terrorism, blood and killing civilians."

Amani suffered serious injuries in his face and hands when a pager he was holding exploded in mid-September. The device was one of about 3,000 pagers that exploded simultaneously, killing and wounding many Hezbollah members.

A day after the pager attack, a similar attack struck walkie-talkies. In total, the explosions killed at least 37 people and wounded more than 3,000, many of them civilians.

Last month, a spokesperson for the office of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the pager attack was approved by Netanyahu.