Askume North, Sept 20 – Taiwan’s economy minister said on Friday that components used in thousands of pagers that dealt a deadly blow to Lebanon’s Hezbollah on Tuesday were not made in Taiwan.
Taiwan-based Gold Apollo said this week that it did not manufacture the devices used in the attack and that Budapest-based BAC, the company linked to the pager, had a licence to use its brand.
It is not clear when or how pagers were weaponized so that they could be detonated remotely. Hundreds of handheld radios used by Hezbollah were also similarly damaged, exploding in a second wave of attacks on Wednesday. The two incidents in Lebanon killed 37 people and injured nearly 3,000.
“These components are (mainly) low-end ICs (integrated circuits) and batteries,” Taiwan’s Economy Minister Kuo Chi-hui told reporters.
When asked if the explosive pager parts were made in Taiwan, he said: “I can definitely say they were not made in Taiwan.” He said judicial authorities were investigating the case.
Security sources said Israel claimed responsibility for Tuesday’s pager bombing, raising the possibility of an escalation of the conflict. Israel has not commented directly on the attack.
Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung also said “no” in an interview with reporters at the congress when asked if he would meet Israel’s de facto ambassador to express concern over the matter.
“We need to raise security awareness from our embassies abroad and exchange relevant information with other countries.”
Gold Apollo chairman and founder Su Ching-kuang told prosecutors late Thursday that Taiwanese authorities were investigating any possible links between its extensive global tech supply chain and the equipment used in the Lebanese attacks and then abandoned them.
Another person from the prosecutor’s office, Teresa Wu, the sole employee of Apollo Systems, was also present but did not speak to reporters because she arrived late on Thursday.
Hsu said this week that a person named Teresa was one of his contacts in the BAC deal.
A spokesman for the Taipei Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office told Askume they had questioned the two men as witnesses and had been given permission to search four of their company’s locations in Taiwan as part of the investigation.
“We will find out as soon as possible whether these Taiwanese companies may be involved in this matter to ensure the safety of the country and the people,” the spokesperson said.
Iran’s ally Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, but Israel has not claimed responsibility for the bombing. The two sides have been engaged in cross-border fighting since the conflict in Gaza began in October last year.
