Hungary Offered Intelligence Help To Iran After Hezbollah Pager Attacks (Worthy News Investigation)

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief reporting from Budapest, Hungary

BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s government offered support, mainly through intelligence, to Iran less than two weeks after Israel carried out pager detonations in September 2024 against the Hezbollah group, a report revealed Wednesday.

More than 3,600 people were wounded across Lebanon on September 17, 2024—most of them Iran-backed Hezbollah members—when the pagers they used to communicate exploded. Additional Hezbollah operatives in Syria and Iraq were also reportedly affected.

Hungary is believed to have been a country of interest for Iran and its proxy Hezbollah—designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and many of its allies—for a reason. The Taiwanese company whose brand the exploded pagers carried, Gold Apollo, said the devices were made by Budapest-based firm BAC Consulting KFT, Worthy News reported at the time.

However, government spokesman Zoltán Kovács said “the company in question is a trading intermediary, with no manufacturing or operational site in Hungary. It has one manager registered at its declared address, and the referenced devices have never been in Hungary.”

Yet the latest revelations by The Washington Post newspaper were expected to further embarrass Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who faces his toughest election since returning to power in 2010.

LEAKED CALL RAISES QUESTIONS

Orbán has long been seen as one of Israel’s strongest allies in Europe and the European Union. However, his government’s reported offer of support to Iran, which has pledged to destroy the Jewish state, is likely to raise concerns in Israel.

A leaked transcript of a September 30 call, obtained and authenticated by a Western intelligence service and reviewed by The Washington Post, showed Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó telling his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi: “Our secret service has already contacted your services, and we will share all the information we have gathered during the investigation” into the explosions targeting Hezbollah, a designated terrorist organization.

“Every possible document will be shared with your services,” Szijjártó reportedly said.

There was no immediate reaction from the White House to the revelations, which came hours after U.S. Vice President JD Vance left Hungary, where he had been on what critics described as a “Save Orbán” mission to support the Hungarian prime minister ahead of elections.

PREVIOUS LEAKS ADD PRESSURE

Commentators suggested Hungary’s apparent outreach to Iran contradicts Orbán’s stated policy of support for Israel. Orbán has aligned himself with both U.S. President Donald J. Trump and his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The controversy follows earlier revelations reported by Worthy News, including calls in which Szijjártó allegedly offered to share inside information with Russia about Ukraine’s European Union integration plans and ways to circumvent EU sanctions.

“I will send it to you. It’s not a problem,” Szijjártó said in one conversation, after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov explained Moscow was seeking a document related to minority language rights in Ukraine’s EU accession talks.

The governments in Moscow and Budapest have both expressed concern about what they view as Kyiv’s treatment of minorities, including Russians and Hungarians living in Ukraine.

BROADER CONCERNS EMERGE

The audio clips, released by a consortium of investigative outlets including VSquare, allegedly suggest Orbán’s government worked to serve Russian—and possibly Iranian—interests while undermining European Union efforts to support Ukraine.

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Szijjártó has previously confirmed that recordings of his calls exist, but described the wiretapping as a “huge scandal,” adding that Orbán ordered an investigation.

The latest reported scandals come just days ahead of the April 12 vote, with Orbán’s Fidesz party trailing the main center-right opposition Tisza Party led by Péter Magyar.

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