The United States said Tuesday it was not aware in advance and had no involvement in mass explosions of pagers used by Hezbollah and which have been blamed on Israel.
"I can tell you that the US was not involved in it, the US was not aware of this incident in advance and, at this point, we're gathering information," State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters, as quoted by the AFP news agency.
Miller declined to comment on widespread suspicion that the blasts were carried out by Israel and would only say the US message to Iran, which is the main backer of Hezbollah, remained unchanged.
"We would urge Iran not to take advantage of any incident to try to add further instability and to further increase tensions in the region," Miller stated.
"We do want to see a diplomatic resolution to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah," he added.
"We want to see one that allows the tens of thousands of Israelis who've been displaced from their homes and the tens of thousands of Lebanese who have been displaced from their homes to be able to return home," Miller said.
At the same time, the State Department spokesperson suggested that Hezbollah, which is blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States, was fair game to strike.
"Terrorist members of a terrorist organization are legitimate targets for countries to launch operations against," Miller stated.
The series of explosions on Tuesday in the Dahieh area of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, left at least 11 dead and at least 4,000 injured, reports in Lebanon said.
Later reports said that "dozens" of simultaneous explosions took place in Syria as well, when pagers worn by Hezbollah terrorists exploded.
Hezbollah blamed Israel for the explosions and promised to retaliate. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi condemned the explosions, calling them a "terrorist act" and blaming Israel.