 |
| Former Hezbollah Secretary-General Subhi al-Tufayli on MTV |
Former Hezbollah leader Subhi al-Tufayli has
accused current leaders of Lebanon’s militant group and Iran of the double
crime of fighting alongside the Syrian regime and stoking the fire of a regional
Sunni-Shiite war.
He made the accusation in a wide-ranging, two-hour interview on Be Mawdou3ia (Arabic for “Objectively”),
a weekly program hosted Monday nights by Walid Abboud on MTV Lebanon.
Tufayli spent nine
years studying theology in Najaf
and was influenced by the teachings of Ruhollah Khomeini.
He was spokesman for
Hezbollah between 1985 and 1989, and became the militant Shiite group’s first
Secretary-General from 1989 until 1991.
I excerpted and paraphrased from the interview with Tufayli these Qs and
As on Syria:
Abboud: What’s going on at the Syrian-Lebanese border?
What’s this tension all about? Why the on-off exchange of fire?
Tufayli: I said previously the war in Syria was taking an
alarming turn and that Syria risked biting the dust. I warned of the war’s
repercussions on Lebanon. I was trying then to avert a spillover and urging
Lebanon’s Sunnis and Shiites to stand together and spare Lebanon the Syria war fallouts.
I didn’t imagine we would choose – of our own volition -- to join the sedition
in Syria.
Abboud: Who is “we”?
Tufayli: We Lebanese, both Sunnis and Shiites. We elected to
join the sedition, which was a very dangerous thing to do. The result can only be
catastrophic. I am certain: whoever is behind this does not give a hoot about
the future of either the Sunnis or Shiites, or about Lebanon or the region. And
here, I would like to interject a word to my meritorious, beloved, pious and
righteous sons in Hezbollah…
Abboud: …Do your meritorious sons include the Hezbollah leadership?
Tufayli: I include some of the leaders, yes. I remind the
rest that each time some members, some Iranians, tried to put us off-course and
have us fight wars here and there against this side or that, we refused and
remained focused on Palestine… Today, to put it bluntly, we are fighting in
Syria.
Abboud: Who is fighting in Syria?
Tufayli: Hezbollah.
Abboud: Is Hezbollah fighting in Syria, or is it defending
or helping Lebanese in villages there?
Tufayli: It is
fighting in Syria.
Abboud: Those in Syria are defending themselves.
Tufayli: I don’t want to hide behind my finger. The Shiites
in Syria don’t need someone to defend them. We compromised them and we ensnared
them. If they are in danger, we are to blame. We are responsible for any harm befalling
any Shiite in Syria. We got them in trouble. We caused them pain. They didn’t
need our help or our solidarity. Even today, we can still take the correct
steps and desist. By so doing, Syria’s Shiites would be spared Syria’s tragedy.
Abboud: But Hezbollah does not speak of Syria’s Shiites. It
speaks of the Lebanese Shiites residing on Syrian territory.
Tufayli: I am referring to both. Moreover, the stones of the
shrine (in the Damascus suburbs) of Sayyeda Zeinab do not
need our protection. All this is haywire and meant for the naïve. The real aim
(of Hezbollah now) is to protect the regime – a tyrannical regime killing its
own people. Is it conceivable to see the Syrian people being slaughtered and
shelled by all sorts of weapons? Not once did Syria fire a missile – of the types
being rained on Aleppo, among other places -- toward Palestine, not even in
(the Israel-Hezbollah war of) 2006. To avoid saying it is defending the regime,
Hezbollah invented all this rubbish about protecting Shiites, the Lebanese in
Syria and the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine. Hezbollah is implicating Syria’s Shiites.
Hezbollah and Iran are accountable for every Shiite life lost in Syria.
They are responsible for every house destroyed or tree cut in Syria. We could
have spared the Shiites of Syria, Lebanon and the region this hateful sectarian
conflict.
We claim to be followers of Imam Hussein and his
struggle against injustice. And what we have in Syria are people wanting to rid
themselves of an unjust ruler. Our legal, religious, moral and humanitarian
duty is to take the side of the oppressed Syrian people. Any other stance is a
heinous crime for which we will be held accountable before God.
Abboud: A viewer emailed this question, “Would a Hezbollah
fighter killed in Syria be considered a martyr?”
Tufayli: A martyr because he killed Muslim children, because
he panicked them, a martyr because he destroyed their homes, a martyr because he
is allegedly liberating Palestine? No, such a person is destined to hell,
according to the Holy Quran.
Abboud: There’s more now to the Syria war – internal,
regional and international factors and talk of an attempt to bring down the
Axis of Resistance represented by Syria, Hezbollah and Iran?
Tufayli: What I can say is that a regional Sunni-Shiite conflict
would benefit Israel. Our involvement in Syria serves Israel. In addition, neither
side will be allowed to win the Syria war. The powers that be and Israel want
both sides to end as losers. Their interest is for the Ummah
(Islamic nation) to self-destruct -- whether in Lebanon, or Syria or Iraq… The
United States wants the regime to continue destroying Syria for now.
Abboud: Are you therefore asking the Iranian leadership to also
leave the Syrian regime – its strategic partner – to its fate?
Tufayli: If the price of supporting the Syrian regime is
leading to lose Syria, Lebanon and the Ummah, I have to rethink my strategy –
unless I am bent on serving Israel’s interests. I know that Israel today is elated by Hezbollah’s course.
Israel would be happy to defend Hezbollah so long as Hezbollah continues to
fight in Syria. Who can render Israel a better service?
Abboud: But Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is keeping up
his threats to hit Israel hard if it launched any attack.
Tufayli: Israel today is very keen to see Hezbollah fighting
in Syria and the Ummah falling to pieces. Khomeini called for unity and not for
internecine strife in the name of the Axis of Resistance.
Abboud: If, as you said, Israel is off Hezbollah’s back
now, how do you explain Hezbollah sending a drone over Israel (last October)?
Tufayli: You could say it was probably to obscure
Hezbollah’s role in Syria – like its jargon about defending Shiites in Syria
and the Sayyeda Zeinab shrine.
