State Department spokesman Matthew Miller appears at a briefing on Tuesday, September 17.

According to a State Department spokesman, the US was “not involved” in the series of pager explosions in Lebanon and was “not aware” of any attacks.

Miller would not say what information the US has so far, or whether the US believes Israel is responsible or not.

Hezbollah and Lebanon have both blamed Israel for the attack, which wounded some 2,800 people and killed at least nine, Lebanon’s health minister said. The Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.

“I can’t make a judgment at this point,” Miller said.

Miller declined to say whether the US would conduct its own assessment, but said it was “gathering information through all the means we normally do.”

“I don’t want to prejudge what we’ll say in the coming days,” Miller said.

Asked whether there were any indications that Iran could retaliate given reports that the Iranian ambassador had been injured, Miller said he did not want to speculate until those reports were confirmed.

“I have seen the reports. I don’t want to comment on the possible implications until a report is confirmed. But as always, we urge Iran not to take advantage of an incident, of instability, to try to create further instability and further increase tensions in the region. That has been our message to Iran since October 7,” he said.

Miller also reiterated that the US believes there must be a diplomatic solution to the conflict in northern Israel with Hezbollah, and that it is important for Israel and Hamas to reach a ceasefire to facilitate a diplomatic solution in the north.

Miller said it is “very, very difficult to achieve a diplomatic solution in the north, without a solution to the conflict in Gaza, without a ceasefire in Gaza. That is why we continue to push for that ceasefire, because we think it will be much easier to achieve a solution.”

Miller declined to say how the US believes the attack will affect ceasefire negotiations.