TEHRAN -– The United States has started a full-scale war to dominate oil reserves in the region under the cover of the Greater Middle East initiative, Iranian Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar said here on Monday, referring to the ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon.

“The White House officials are the puppets of the Zionist regime,” he told a number of Defense Ministry staff, adding that the savage atrocities of the Zionist forces in Lebanon proved yet again that the issue of human rights is merely an excuse for major powers to plunder other countries.

“The United States has used all its military, political and diplomatic capabilities to serve the expansionist goals of the Zionist regime and to ensure its security. Moreover, in order to cover its military contributions to Israel, which includes unconventional weapons, it has ordered its media to disseminate disinformation that Iran is providing weapons to the Lebanese Hezbollah.”

If Islamic governments fail to take a serious measure against the Zionist regime, it will continue its atrocities, he stated.

“If the world of Islam had manifested even a small amount of its great power, neither the U.S. and Israel nor their allies would have dared to attack Lebanon and Palestine,” he opined, adding that Hezbollah is the symbol of resistance against oppression and the Lebanese resistance is the final winner of the war with Israel.