Iran is outraged that its ambassador to Lebanon was harmed in the exploding-pagers operation that took place on Tuesday. Reports indicate that Iranian Ambassador Mojtaba Amani lost an eye in the attack. Many Hezbollah members looked at the pagers when they beeped and were wounded in the face when they exploded.
Why was Iran’s ambassador issued a Hezbollah pager? This is a question Iran has not answered. It seems clear that he was part of the Hezbollah nexus in Lebanon – likel
Iran has condemned Israel for the harm caused to its envoy. Iranian Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani said Tehran would “follow up on the attack against its ambassador in Lebanon, demanding the UN chief and the Security Council condemn Israel’s terrorist action against the ambassador as well as targeting of Lebanese civilians,” Iranian state media reported Wednesday.
Tehran has sent a letter to the head of the UN and the presidents of the Security Council and the General Assembly, saying it reserves its right under “international law” to take measures in the wake of the incident.
Iran has done so before. When Israel struck a building next to the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Tehran responded by launching more than 300 missiles and drones at Israel.
It’s not clear how much weight Iran puts on the ambassador’s wounds. Tehran called it a “heinous crime,” adding that it “strongly condemns this act of sabotage and terrorism by the rogue regime of Israel.”
Iran said the pager affair was a “flagrant violation of the basic principles and rules of international law, including the UN Charter, international law, particularly international humanitarian law and international human rights law, as well as the provisions of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and the 1973 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Crimes against Internationally Protected Persons, including Diplomatic Agents.”
Iran calls on UN to condemn Israel
Tehran wants the UN to address the exploding-pagers incident and also to “end the impunity of the Zionist regime’s officials.” It said the Security Council “must also strongly condemn Israel for its malevolent activities in the region and take decisive action to force this terrorist regime to end and cease all acts of aggression and acts of terrorism against Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine and stop the ongoing genocidal war against the Palestinian people.”
Amani was born in 1963 and previously was an Iranian diplomat in Egypt from 2013-2022. He was appointed ambassador to Lebanon in 2022, an important position. As ambassador, he would have to deal with several files, including work with Hezbollah and the Shi’ite Amal movement.
He was tapped for his new role by former Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian, who viewed foreign policy as an extension of IRGC policy and its aggressive posture in the region. As such, it’s likely that Amani was told he would be a close liaison with Hezbollah and the IRGC regarding Iran’s militant activities in Lebanon, such as weapons transfers.
Abdollahian “pointed to the importance of cooperation between Iran and Lebanon and insisted on the need to pay attention to strategic ties between the two countries,” a report in 2022 said.
Amani’s predecessor, Mohammad Jalal Firouznia, received a sending off from Hezbollah and other factions in Lebanon. The “Loyalty to Resistance parliamentary bloc held a ceremony to honor the Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mohammad Jalal Firouznia, on the end of his four-year diplomatic mission,” Hezbollah’s Beirut-based Al-Manar news channel reported in 2022.
Amani has kept a low profile in Lebanon since his appointment. Nevertheless, it is clear that behind the scenes, he has played an important role because Hezbollah has hosted Iranian officials and also met with Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad leaders.
In April 2023, Abdollahian met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, and they went to southern Lebanon together to view the border with Israel. Amani attended the meeting, according to reports. This past February, in the wake of the October 7 massacre, Nasrallah met with Abdollahian and Amani.
In a bizarre twist, according to reports in August, Amani had not been seen for several days, indicating that might have defected to Israel. Amani had to deny the reports. It was not clear why those reports emerged or who spread them.