Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said the U.S. "did not know about, nor was it involved in" the wave of exploding pagers in Lebanon and Syria, an apparent Israeli operation targeting Hezbollah’s communications network.
Speaking in Egypt alongside the country's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Blinken added: "We're still gathering the information and gathering the facts."
"It's imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could, escalate the conflict," he said.
Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded almost simultaneously on Tuesday across Lebanon and in parts of Syria, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and wounding around 2,800.
Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Speaking in Egypt alongside the country's Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty, Blinken added: "We're still gathering the information and gathering the facts."
"It's imperative that all parties refrain from any actions that could, escalate the conflict," he said.
Hundreds of handheld pagers exploded almost simultaneously on Tuesday across Lebanon and in parts of Syria, killing at least 12 people, including two children, and wounding around 2,800.
Officials pointed the finger at Israel in what appeared to be a sophisticated remote attack. The Israeli military declined to comment.
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NewsTranscript
00:00With regard to Lebanon, the United States did not know about, nor was it involved in
00:06these incidents.
00:07And we're still gathering the information and gathering the facts.
00:12Broadly speaking, we've been very clear and we remain very clear about the importance
00:18of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we're trying
00:25to resolve in Gaza.
00:27We've made a tremendous amount of progress over the last month, month and a half.
00:35There are, I think in the agreement, 18 paragraphs, 15 of them are agreed, but the remaining issues
00:48need to be resolved.
00:57For more UN videos visit www.un.org