Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Hezbollah is Iran’s army under a foreign commander and control structure, and responsible for carrying out Iranian military and terror activities in the Lebanon/Syria/Israel area.

(AFP) - Iranian foreign minister Manoucheher Mottaki was defiant over Tehran’s support for the Lebanese militia group Hezbollah, considered a terrorist organisation by the United States and European Union.

Mottaki attended the funeral of murdered Hezbollah leader Imad Mughnieh in Lebanon last month.

The Islamic republic, along with its regional ally Syria, is accused of arming and financing Hezbollah, although Iran insists it only gives the Shiite militant group political support.

“Our support to the Lebanese resistance is a moral support,” Mottaki said.

“We support their position of resistance, their position to insist on standing up to the attacks and aggressions of others,” he said.

Israel occupied part of southern Lebanon from 1982 to 2000, during which time Hezbollah assumed the mantle of a resistance force. Following Israeli withdrawal, Hezbollah still claims this role as the disputed Shebaa Farms area is still occupied.

Israel also launched a ferocious military assault against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and Beirut in summer 2006, killing more than 1,000 Lebanese civilians.

The assault was launched after Hezbollah fired rockets into Israel from southern Lebanon, and kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

“Beside the Arab countries and Islamic countries we have a joint effort for the reconstruction of Lebanon,” Mottaki said.

Iran is also regularly accused of funding the Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza and other occupied Palestinian territories.

Again, Mottaki insisted that “our support to Palestinians is humanitarian assistance and moral support”.

Israel claims that the long-range Grad rockets fired by Hamas militants into southern Israel from the Gaza Strip are made in Iran.