Pager explosion draws Taiwan into Middle East politics

Pager explosion happened en masse in Lebanon on Tuesday 

Taiwan's technology industry has unwittingly been drawn into Middle East politics after it emerged that thousands of explosive pagers used to kill members of Lebanon's Hezbollah group were manufactured under a Taiwanese company's brand name. 

Taiwanese technology company Gold Apollo denied on Wednesday that it  manufactured the AR-924 pagers that exploded in Lebanon, saying they were manufactured under a license agreement by a European company called BAC.

"In accordance with the agreement, we will allow BAC to use our trademarks to sell products in certain territories, but the design and manufacture of the products will remain entirely in the hands of BAC," Gold Apollo said in a statement. 

"We only provide  trademark approval and are not involved in the design and manufacture of this product," the company added. 

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said it had no record of directly exporting the devices to Lebanon and that the pagers may have been modified after manufacture. 

Taiwan's foreign ministry did not respond to requests for comment. On Tuesday (September 17), simultaneous explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah members across Lebanon killed at least nine people, including one young girl, and injured 2,750. 

The New York Times and Reuters reported, citing anonymous sources, that Israeli authorities had planted small amounts of explosives in the pagers at least five months before the explosions.