Report: Senior Iranian official says Hezbollah pager could have caused helicopter crash that killed Raisi

A senior Iranian official reportedly says Tehran was involved in purchasing the pagers held by Hezbollah operatives that exploded across Lebanon last week in an attack widely blamed on Israel, and hinted that such a device could have been responsible for the helicopter crash that killed Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in May.

In a post on X, Europe-based Iranian journalist Mohamad Ahwaze reports that Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani, a member of the Iranian parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that Hezbollah had been hacked and confirmed that Raisi had one of the compromised pagers.

At least 30 people were killed and thousands injured when pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives exploded across Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, in a coordinated attack widely blamed on Israel after months of cross-border fire.

Earlier this month, Iran’s official investigation into the May crash determined that it was caused by bad weather, after the helicopter carrying Raisi and his entourage came down on a fog-shrouded mountainside in northern Iran, killing the president and seven others, and triggering snap elections.