Iran's cooperation with Lebanon based on norms

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi today denounced the remarks by US President George W. Bush and Israel's deputy premier Shimon Peres on clandestine cooperation between Iran and the Lebanese Hizbullah, as well as the Lebanese government.

Asefi added, "The Iranian government's cooperation with the Lebanese government and that country's resistance movement is quite transparent and in accordance with the international norms and relations among governments." Asefi added, "The remarks made by Bush and Peres are due to the defeat they have suffered in their confrontation with the Lebanese nation." He emphasized, "The Islamic Republic of Iran's contributions to Hizbullah resistance movement are merely of humanitarian, spiritual, and political nature, and that movement is needless of other types of assistance." The Foreign Ministry Spokesman added, "Resorting to the facilities at its disposal, and the full support of the Lebanese nation, the resistance movement managed to confront the aggressive moves of the Zionist regime and to impose another defeat against that regime, further defaming them in the eyes of the world nations." Asefi said, "Bush and his Zionist accomplices cannot cover up their humiliating defeat resorting to such phony claims." Referring to the remarks made by certain Lebanese officials, he said, "The sensitivity of the current situation and the complicated nature of affairs in Lebanon call for refraining from making uncalculated remarks that would only serve the interests of Lebanon's enemies, and provide a chance for the Zionist regime to take advantage." The Foreign Ministry Spokesman emphasized at the end, "The Lebanese officials and political personalities are expected to wisely and farsightedly try to boost national solidarity so that the plots hatched against their nation and the threat of more Israeli attacks against their land and the Islamic World would be more easily dismantled."