The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi yesterday denied the Zionist regime's accusations that Iran has sent arms shipments to the Lebanese Hizbollah.

These accusations are often leveled against Iran by the Zionist regime to somehow justify its defeat in the face of Lebanese resistance movement spearheaded by Hizbollah that ultimately forced this regime to end its 22-year occupation of South Lebanon.

However, as to the denial by the Foreign Ministry, the spokesman should not feel so proud of this denial, as helping the oppressed in the face of oppressors has always been one of the cornerstones of the Islamic Revolution, and the denial indicates that the Islamic government has fallen short of fulfilling this objective.

The late leader of Islamic Revolution and founder of Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini often stressed that the Islamic government should side with all the oppressed and downtrodden throughout the world and extend them whatever aid and assistance it can.

It does not need strong reasoning to prove that the Palestinians are clear instances of oppressed nations in the world. The international community knows very well that the Zionist terrorist groups like Hagana, Stern Gang and others displaced Palestinians through massacres and other forms of intimidation, forcing them to flee to neighboring countries, and then established their illegitimate Zionist regime on the occupied Palestinian territories in 1948 with the green light from Britain and the United States.

This is why even before the victory of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini and other veteran revolutionaries like Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani often expressed concern over the plight of innocent Palestinians and called on the Islamic world to extend assistance to their Palestinian brethren.

The Zionist regime continued with its aggressions and crimes even after its illegitimate inception and imposed several wars on Arab countries in 1956, 1967, 1973 and 1978, capturing territories from Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon.

In June, 1982, the Zionist regime mounted a full-scale invasion of Lebanon. On June 14, Israeli forces surrounded and shelled Beirut, and they occupied West Beirut on September 14. The Zionist troops and their allied Lebanese Christian militia massacred thousands of Palestinian men, women and children at Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Lebanon.

These are just a few instances of Zionist aggressions and crimes against neighboring Arab countries and Palestinian and Lebanese nations. Thus, it is quite natural for the Islamic Republic to express concern over the fate of these Muslim people, who are still suffering from Zionist aggressions, including air raids and shelling and bombardment of residential areas.

It is the duty of the Islamic government to extend whatever aid and assistance it can to the Palestinian and Lebanese people, who have fallen victim to plots hatched by arrogant powers led by the United States and Britain and carried out by Zionist terrorists and criminals.

The butcher of innocent women and children has been armed to the teeth and put at the helm of the Zionist entity. He is continuing his massacres. Our Foreign Ministry should pursue the noble policy of help and assistance to the victimized people of Palestine in whatever way and by whatever means at its disposal.