After a series of pager explosions in Lebanon, Iranian authorities have banned the import and use of Motorola mobile phones. According to the news agency TASS, Iranian minister Mohammad Mehdi Baradaran has announced that the sale of Motorola devices within the country’s border has been halted.

The ban came amid rising security concerns due to the escalating tensions and war-like situation in the Middle East. Earlier, Iran prohibited the use of pagers and walkie-talkies on all flights after a deadly attack in Lebanon that was attributed to Israel.

The decision comes about six weeks after explosions linked to pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah members, affecting nearly 3,000 individuals, according to official figures.

According to the Digiato reports, “the sale of Motorola phones in all online stores has also been stopped, with these stores either removing Motorola phone listings or saying that they are out of stock.”

Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among the victims of the pager blast. Earlier this month, the Dubai-based airline Emirates also banned the use of pagers and walkie-talkies on its flights.
Analysts believe that operatives likely planted explosives in the pagers before delivering them to Hezbollah. Charles Lister from the Middle East Institute noted that a small plastic explosive was probably hidden next to the battery for remote detonation through a call or page.

 A security official mentioned that the initial findings from a Lebanese investigation confirmed the pagers were booby-trapped.

The pager blast took place on September 17 and caused simultaneous explosions in the southern suburbs of Beirut and other areas that were controlled by Hezbollah. The device blew up after beeping to indicate incoming messages which led to the deaths of 39 people and over 3,400 injured. The proximity of the blast caused serious injuries including missing fingers, eye damage, and severe abdominal wounds. 

The explosives were hidden inside pagers that had been sent to Lebanon earlier that year as part of an Israeli strategy to weaken Hezbollah. The agents who created the pagers designed a battery that covered a small but powerful plastic explosive charge, along with a new detonator that could not be detected by X-ray. This information comes from a Lebanese source familiar with the devices, as well as teardown photos of the battery pack examined by Reuters.