“This is a bitter and difficult truth that must be told,” he began Sobhi a-Tufaili the first secretary general of the Hezbollah organization in 1989-1991, an unusual speech in its harshness against the cease-fire agreement in Lebanon and the Iranian influence in the Middle East. Al-Tufaili, who was removed from his position due to disagreements with the Iranian leadership and since then has consistently criticized the organization, presented in a speech that lasted about half An unprecedented criticism of Hezbollah’s conduct and Iran’s policy in the region.
“This whole agreement that Netanyahu announced on TV – I haven’t heard about it from any other source,” attacked A-Tufaili. He sharply mocked the concept of the “strategic depth” which refers to the space between Lebanon and Khorasan – an area in Central Asia that includes parts of Iran and Afghanistan – a distance of about 4,000 kilometers. “It’s completely ridiculous,” he emphasized, “when the reality is that our residents can’t even reach their lands.”
The former Secretary General made an unprecedented criticism of Hezbollah and defined it as “a military apparatus subordinate to the Iranian military apparatus, which receives direct orders from the Supreme Leader.” According to him, “It is a crime that we do not know the details of the agreements. The leadership has been hiding for years from the eyes of the people, from its children and from the Lebanese in general, and communicates only behind a screen.”
Referring to the Second Lebanon War, Al-Tufaili revealed: “We entered the war under the banner of liberation, but the result was devastating. If you want to understand the reasons, go back to those days and examine the political situation and the crises that existed.” He also attacked the statements about the military capabilities: “We heard promises of tremendous capabilities that would change the face of the region in a short time. It was said that no foreign vessel would be able to sail in the Mediterranean Sea. In practice, it is the civilian population that pays the price.” The former Secretary General proposed an extreme solution: “The civilian population must be evacuated to the desert. We will survive there for a year, two years or a decade – the main thing is to enable a real military operation.”
In an unprecedented statement in the Lebanese discourse, A-Tofaili referred to the need for a new defense strategy for Lebanon. “Soon we will talk about Lebanon’s real strength,” he said, revealing that the country needs protection “against nuclear bombs,” a first hint of its kind to Lebanese nuclear ambitions. However, he criticized that even in this area “everything has become an Iranian matter – the armament, the reconciliation, the entire strategy”.
At the end of his speech, he emphasized the “right to know the truth” as values that must stand above all other considerations. He concluded with a sharp criticism of the relationship with Iran: “If Tehran wants to present itself as an opponent of the United States – how does this reconcile with its conduct in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, where it cooperates with the Americans? All the moves – from peace to war, from armaments to strategy – are all Iranian. If there is good in this, we will thank the Iranians, if bad – the responsibility lies with their leaders.”