Iranian scholar denies directing Hezbollah

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb. 22 (UPI) -- Iranian support for Shiite resistance movement Hezbollah extends only to the ideological level, said a scholar at a think tank in Tehran.

Hamid Reza Dehghani, director of Persian Gulf and Middle East studies at Iran's Institute for Political and International Studies, said Hezbollah's weapons were a matter of Lebanese defense, Lebanon's Now news service reports.

Beirut in 2009 approved a measure that allows Hezbollah, a member of the Lebanese Cabinet, to maintain an armed resistance to counter an Israeli threat.

Border tensions between Lebanon and Israel escalated in 2009 with both sides blaming the other for violating the terms of a U.N.-brokered cease-fire to a 2006 war.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week praised Hezbollah leaders, meanwhile, for issuing stark rhetoric against Israel.

Dehghani downplayed the possibility of renewed conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, saying Israel can no longer act without approval from Washington or Europe.

He went on to dismiss claims that Iran was directing Hezbollah activity in the region.

"Iran sponsors the resistance's activity at the ideological and intellectual levels only," he told Lebanon's As-Safir newspaper.