Askume North, Sept 19 – Taiwan’s defence minister said its national security team was “paying close attention” to the explosion of thousands of pagers targeting Lebanese Hezbollah, as links to a Taiwanese company that made the pagers disappeared.
Taiwan’s Gold Apollo said the devices used in the attack were not manufactured by it but by a Budapest-based company that has a licence to use its brand.
Taiwan’s Defense Minister Terry Gou told reporters in Taipei that the government was paying close attention to developments.
“After the news came out, as far as I know, relevant national security agencies have been paying close attention to the matter,” he said, without elaborating. Gu spoke on Wednesday, but his comments were suppressed until Thursday.
Iran-backed Hezbollah has vowed to retaliate against Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the bombing that killed nine people . Since the conflict in Gaza began in October last year,Both sides are engaged in cross-border fighting.
Like most countries, Israel has no formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan, as China claims, but the two countries do have de facto embassies and close, albeit informal, ties.
Taipei immediately condemned the Palestinian Hamas armed forces’ attack on Israel on October 7 and launched the Gaza War, and expressed strong support and sympathy for Israel.
Israel’s envoy to Taipei said last year that Taiwan was a ” good friend ” and that Israel appreciated Taiwan’s support but that China’s response to the October 7 attack was “disturbing”.
Asked whether Israel had provided Taiwan with advance information about the blast or whether there were any security or intelligence exchanges between the two countries, he said Taipei has no such relationship with the country.
Ministry of Public Security spokesman Sun Lifang, seated next to Mr Gu, said the company’s public information showed the pagers were not manufactured by the company.
In terms of international cooperation, Taiwan hopes the cooperation will help maintain stability in the Taiwan Strait, he said.
“This does not involve any provocative behavior off the field,” Sun said.
Taiwan Cabinet spokesman Li Huijie reiterated in an interview with reporters on Thursday that there is “no explosion problem” with pagers exported from Taiwan.
Lee said the National Security Agency was monitoring rumors on the Internet that were coming from abroad in a “malicious” attempt to link the Taiwanese government to the case.
“That’s not the case. I caution people against misinformation on the internet,” she said.
