Subhi al-Tufayli was the first Secretary-General or leader of Hezbollah for a year. Al-Tufayli is a Shia Islamist, but is a very vocal critic of Iran and the current Hezbollah leadership. He has been an active member of the Lebanese movement Amal Movement, and maintains his support of the organization.
Early life and education
Al-Tufayli spent nine years studying theology in the city ofNajaf, Iraq, during the Saddam Hussein era, where he met other Islamist clerics, and he was influenced by Lebanese cleric Musa al-Sadr. Returning to Lebanon, al-Tufayli joined with Abbas al-Musawi to help found the Shiite Islamic group of Hezbollah in the Beqaa Valley in 1982. Beqaa is one of Hezbollah's three main regions of support in Lebanon.
In 1984, al-Tufayli was replaced by Abbas al-Musawi as head of Hezbollah. Hezbollah's hostage-taking campaign had wound down since the "Kuwait 17" bombers of the 1983 Kuwait bombings who were linked to leading Hezbollah members were now free, and the Taif Agreement had essentially ended the Civil War in Lebanon. Some say, al-Tufayli also opposed Hezbollah's participation in Lebanese national elections and its "moderation" toward the Lebanese state. al-Tufayli himself however stated that the internal split in Hezbollah was caused by Iran's take over of Hezbollah from the original Lebanese leadership, and Iran's opposition to tactics under his leadership of violence against Israel and a demand to the end of the state of Israel; al Tufayli stated explicitly that Iran wanted to use Hezbollah as a "border guard" for Israel. Al-Tufayli also promoted the cause against the corruption in South Lebanon, Beirut and the whole state, as Musa al-Sadr did, in his Movement of the 1970's. In July 1997, he organized protests, against the Lebanese government. Al-Tufayli said it is "completely unacceptable that a human being could be humiliated because of poverty or because they were in need." He created a breakaway group from Hizbollah with a more populist anti-corruption tone. It has been alleged that Tufayli is funded by Saudi Arabia as an alternative to Hezbollah. In February 2013, al-Tufayli berated Hezbollah for fighting on behalf of the Syrian government in the Syrian civil war. He said "Hezbollah should not be defending the criminal regime that kills its own people and that has never fired a shot in defense of the Palestinians". al-Tufayli added: "those Hezbollah fighters who are killing children and terrorizing people and destroying houses in Syria will go to hell". He also berated the Lebanese Army for not stopping Lebanese citizens crossing the border to fight in Syria. He also claim that ISIS is created by Iranian and Syrian Government with help of Russia.
