Hungary offered Iran help after Hezbollah blasts, exposing Orbán’s double game
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto speaks during an election campaign rally in Gyor, Hungary, March 27, 2026. (Photo: REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo)
Hungary offered to share information with Iran after
Israel’s deadly September 2024 pager attack on Hezbollah, the Iran-backed
militant group, The
Washington Post reported on April 8, citing copies of a transcript of the
call.
On Sept. 30, 2024, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter
Szijjártó told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi that “our secret service
has already contacted your services, and we will share all the information we
gathered during the investigation.”
The exchange drew attention because Hungary had already come
under scrutiny after the Taiwanese company behind the pager brand said the
devices were made in Hungary under a licensing agreement, the Post said.
In the call, Szijjártó said Hungary had no role in the
explosions, which killed 12 people and injured about 2,800. He also denied that
the pagers were made in Hungary.
According to the transcript, Szijjártó told Araghchi: “I
just wanted to personally inform you that our services have already contacted
yours.”
When Araghchi said he was “very grateful to you for all this,” Szijjártó replied: “Absolutely, absolutely. If you need any additional information or want to get in touch with me, I am always at your service.”
Szijjártó also said that “these pagers are not manufactured
in Hungary, they have never been in Hungary, and no Hungarian company has ever
had any physical connection to these pagers.”
The call and Szijjártó’s offer raise uncomfortable questions
about Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government’s ties with Iran at a time when,
as the article notes, the United States is at war with Iran and the White House
is backing Orbán’s election campaign.
The Post also said the call clashes with Budapest’s official
pro-Israel line. Like U.S. President Donald Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has publicly backed Orbán ahead of the election.
On Sept. 17, 2024, pagers used by Hezbollah members exploded
across Beirut, and within hours reports said about 1,000 people were injured.
A day later, Reuters, citing a senior Lebanese security
official and another informed source, reported that Israel’s Mossad had planted
a small amount of explosives inside 5,000 Taiwanese pagers ordered by Hezbollah
months before the blasts.
Later reporting put the toll at nine dead and about 3,000
wounded.
One source said explosives hidden in 3,000 pagers were
detonated simultaneously after a coded message was sent. Another said Hezbollah
had failed for months to detect up to three grams of explosives hidden inside
each device.
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