A lawmaker has denied allegations by the beleaguered US administration and its junior partners in the Middle East that Iran's intervention in the conflicts around the region and beyond is part of its expansionist policy.
"Iran has never sought expansionism in its foreign policy and has been quick to help the oppressed in the world whenever it has been called upon," said Shahrouz Barzegar Golshani, who is a member of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission.
"Iran's aid and assistance to the Syrian people is in line with our cause of supporting the defenseless and based on our religious values and Islamic teachings," he told ICANA at the weekend.
The lawmaker from Salmas in West Azarbaijan Province, was echoing the position of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on Saturday that Iran's presence in West Asia and Syria in support of the resistance groups is in the framework of its declared policy of backing the oppressed.
Ayatollah Khamenei reprimanded hostile western and regional governments that accuse Tehran of nurturing expansionist ambitions.
“Claims to the effect that Iran is expansionist is not true and the great, prosperous and united Iran has no interest in expansionism in the region or beyond,” said the Leader, as cited by his official website.
“The reason for Iran’s presence in Syria and West Asia is to help the resistance [front], which was facing tyranny…The resistance groups succeeded in defeating the terrorists” backed, bankrolled and armed by the US, other western powers and their minions like Saudi Arabia, he said.
Barzegar condemned the recent US-led missile attacks against Syria as yet another indication that the US and its western allies have no respect for human rights.
"The Syria assault showed the Americans' absolute lack of commitment to human rights," the MP said.
The US, France and Britain hit Syria with over 100 missiles in the early hours of Saturday, targeting government installations that western powers blame for a chemical agent attack against civilians in the town outside Damascus a week earlier.
