Saudis resurrect a rival for Hezbollah
By Sami Moubayed
Asia Times Online
DAMASCUS - Word is coming out of south Lebanon that Saudi money under United States urging is being pumped into the Shi'ite community - in vain - to create a bloc among Lebanese Shi'ites against Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Saudis are strongly opposed to Hezbollah, claiming that it is an extension of Iranian influence in the Arab world. More recently, the Saudis have began coordinating with former vice president Abdul-Halim Khaddam to break Hezbollah's influence in Lebanon.
In testimony of just how influential Nasrallah is as secretary general of Hezbollah, the Saudis have stunningly failed - despite tremendous efforts and allegations of huge sums of money being spent - at creating a serious anti-Nasrallah team in places controlled by Hezbollah and its ally, the Amal Party of speaker Nabih Berri.
This applies to places like al-Dahiya, the Hezbollah stronghold in the suburbs of Beirut, and cities like Baalbak. That is why they have shifted their attention recently to other districts with "Shi'ite pockets" where Hezbollah does not completely reign, like Nab'a, and certain villages in south Lebanon.
Coinciding with this story and probably related to it, are unconfirmed reports saying that Michael Hayden, the head of the US Central Intelligence Agency, went to Beirut for a secret mission, probably aimed at working towards crushing - or at least disarming - Hezbollah.
That coincided with another high-profile visit by US Under Secretary of Defense Eric Edelman to Beirut, where he met Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora, signing an agreement to grant automatic grenade launchers to the Lebanese army. The visit - Edelman's fourth in one year - raised eyebrows among members of the Hezbollah-led opposition, who were welcoming Michel Aoun, Hezbollah's main Christian ally, who was returning from a five-day visit to Iran.
The Americans are trying - again - to implement United Nations Security Council resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah, through strengthening "US-Lebanon bilateral defense" relations. Since 2006, the US has committed more than $410 million in military assistance to Lebanon - hoping that these weapons can be used to counterbalance the military might of Hezbollah.
The Saudis and Subhi Tufayli
The Saudis, however, are reportedly funding a rival wing of Hezbollah itself, modeled around Sheikh Subhi Tufayli, one of the party's original founders who has been sitting in the dark since the 1990s.
Tufayli started out as a firm supporter of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, having studied Islam in Najaf (Iraq) during Khomeini's long exile in the holy Iraqi city, before the Islamic revolution of 1979. He returned to Lebanon and helped co-found Hezbollah - with Iranian support - during the Israeli invasion of 1982.
The party broke from Amal, disgruntled at the party's increased secularization and its political rather than military approach, vis-a-vis the Israeli occupation. Men like Tufayli, Abbas Musawi and Nasrallah wanted action, and immediately clashed with Amal and its veteran leader (and now ally) Nabih Berri.
Under Tufayli's leadership, Hezbollah managed to drive Amal from Beirut during the height of the Lebanese civil war in the late 1980s. Under his command rose the young Nasrallah in 1989, leading a commando force against Amal in Iqlim al-Tuffah, and becoming a member of the central command of Hezbollah at the young age of 29.
Tufayli served as the party's spokesman from 1985 to 1989, then became secretary general from 1989 to 1991. Tufayli opposed taking part in national reconciliation talks in Taif, Saudi Arabia, and as a result was expelled (or asked to resign) from Hezbollah under the urging of then Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Nasrallah served as Hezbollah's "ambassador" to Iran in 1989-1992. During this time, Tufayli was replaced by Abbas Musawi as secretary general, who in turn was assassinated in 1992, many suspect by Israel.
Nasrallah replaced him at the job, although the party's hierarchy showed that it should have gone to Sheikh Naim Qasim. Veterans of Hezbollah - headed by Tufayli - were surprised at the change of command, considering Nasrallah as too junior politically and religiously, and too young at 31, to become the Party of God's number-one man.
A hardliner, Tufayli once said that his supporters did not dream of eradicating Israel in the near future, but plans to lead a battle that will last "for centuries". More recently, he has distanced himself from Iran for its firm support for Nasrallah, a man whom he respects but envies tremendously. He can't challenge him, beat him, or replace him as head of Hezbollah or the Lebanese Shi'ite community.
He once said that some of the current members of Hezbollah "are taking the country towards destruction under the slogan of fighting the American policies in the region. If someone wants to change the government, does it not mean leading the whole country to chaos and civil strife?"
Tufayli vetoed the "politicization" of Hezbollah, claiming that it should neither run for parliament, nor hold government office, and remain committed to what it knows best: guerrilla war with Israel.
In July 1997, he organized a "hunger strike" of his followers in Baalbak, aimed at embarrassing the pro-Hezbollah government of then-prime minister Rafik al-Hariri. He has since called his small power base the Revolution of the Hungry, similar to the "Movement of the Dispossessed" that was created by Hezbollah's godfather, Sheikh Musa Sadr.
Although the Lebanese government tried to arrest him, it has since let him live freely, keeping close tabs on his activities and making sure that he is absent from public life. In 2000, when Nasrallah liberated south Lebanon against Israel, Tufayli was believed to be politically finished, since Hezbollah was at the apex of its career and no Shi'ite with a right mind could challenge the charisma or popularity of Nasrallah.
But on several occasions he came out and spoke against Nasrallah, objecting to the latter's alliance with Iran and claiming that he broke with Hezbollah because of the overt Iranian agenda of its secretary general. Earlier, in his final act of defiance, Tufayli clashed with the Lebanese state when his followers tried to take over a party-run religious school in Baalbak.
The Lebanese army was asked to intervene, when Iranian cover was lifted off Tufayli, back when the armed forces were under command of pro-Syrian General Emille Lahhoud, who became president of the republic from 1998-2007. The army announced that it had mobilized against Tufayli "on charges of forming armed groups, endangering national security and killing soldiers and civilians".
The Lebanese government of Siniora has tried in vain to get rid of Hezbollah, but was unable to do so due to the party's power base and the repeated victories it scored against Israel since 2000. The UN could not disarm Hezbollah, nor could the United States, or Israel in its failed 2006 war on Lebanon.
According to veteran US journalist Seymour Hersh, the Americans and Saudis even worked towards creating an armed Sunni terrorist group to combat Hezbollah - in reference to Fatah al-Islam, inspired by al-Qaeda - which also ended in vain.
Now, all parties are trying to break Nasrallah's kingdom from within, through splinter Shi'ite groups loyal to people like Tufayli and through the money of dissident Syrians. Any person who has seen how popular Nasrallah was in Lebanon in 2000 or 2006 realizes how foolish it would be to try and challenge him by resurrecting figures like Subhi Tufayli.
Nasrallah is one of the most charismatic and popular figures in the Muslim world. Tufayli is a nobody. Nasrallah achieved victory for his party in 2000 and 2006, whereas Tufayli left behind a troubled - almost forgotten - legacy. Nasrallah distributes money to the poor in order to empower the Shi'ites of Lebanon.
Saudi Arabian money is going to Tufayli's pockets, not to ordinary Shi'ites. Saudi Arabia will never be respected or seen as an honest broker in the Shi'ite community because of its ties to militant Sunni groups like al-Qaeda. That is why nobody aided or financed by the Saudis will ever be accepted by Lebanese Shi'ites.
20th October 2008
. If you have a problem with the Lebanese constitution giving HezbAllah the authority to have these weapons, try and change the constitution 
