BEIRUT, Lebanon: Iran- and Syria-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia hailed the shock landslide victory in Iranian presidential election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying it was a slap in the face for the United States.

In a statement for Iran's official news agency IRNA, Hezbollah's assistant secretary general Sheikh Naim Qassem said: “The Iranian people has one again shown that it possesses an extraordinary vitality in the face of challenges and that it is determined to impose its choice in the presidential election and in the affairs of state.”

“The big success of the election was the size of the turnout, which shows the Iranian people's independence of mind and its determination to confront its enemies, particularly US plans to destabilize Iran,” Qassem said rejecting US complaints that the poll was “flawed”.

Backed by Iran and Syria in its long campaign of resistance to Israel's 22-year occupation of south Lebanon, Hezbollah faces a UN Security Council resolution, sponsored by the United States and France last September, that demands the disarmament of its military wing.

Hezbollah militiamen still patrol the south to the exclusion of the Lebanese army.