Subhi al - Tufayli Subhi al - Tufayli ( ) ( born 1948 ) was secretary - general of Hezbollah from 1989 until 1991 . Al - Tufayli was a Shia Islamist and a close follower of the late Ruhollah Khomeini . Early life and education . Al - Tufayli spent nine years studying theology in the city of Najaf , Iraq , where he met and was influenced by other Islamist clerics and by the teachings of Ruhollah Khomeini . Returning to Lebanon , he joined with Abbas al - Musawi to help found the Hezbollah movement / militia in the Beqaa Valley in 1982 . Beqaa is one of Hezbollah ' s three main regions of support in Lebanon . In Hezbollah . Al - Tufayli was spokesman for Hezbollah between 1985 and 1989 , and then the first Secretary - General of Hezbollah from 1989 until 1991 . On 28 July 1989 elite Israeli military units abducted Abdel Karim Obeid , a senior Hezbollah cleric and regional military commander of the Islamic Resistance , who they hoped to use to negotiate an exchange for several IDF soldiers and Western civilian hostages held by Hezbollah . Under al - Tufayli ' s militant leadership however , Hezbollah " remained adamant " in its refusal to release either " any IDF soldiers [ or ] any Western hostages " it held . Post - Hezbollah . In 1992 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 . Al - Musawi was both head of the military wing and former head of the movement ' s " internal security apparatus in Beirut , " and was thus thought well - equipped to lead Hezbollah in its new primary mission of fighting Israel and ending Israel ' s occupation of southern Lebanon . Al - Tufayli also opposed Hezbollah ' s participation in Lebanese national elections and its " moderation " toward the Lebanese state . Al - Tufayli is reportedly the leader of the splinter group Ansar Allah , which may have been responsible for attacks in Lebanon , Panama , and Argentina . According to START , he has been backed by Syria as leverage against the more pro - Iranian Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah . In July 1997 he organized protests , dubbed the " hunger revolution " , 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 . " His breakaway group is known as the " Revolution of the Hungry " ( " Thawrat al - Jiya " ) , although his support base is largely limited to the villages of Brital and Tarayya . He is wanted by the Lebanese government for leading a revolution against the country , but has not been arrested . In January 1998 his militia attempted to occupy a Hezbollah religious school and sparked a violent confrontation with the Lebanese Army . Lebanese authorities issued a warrant for al - Tufayli ' s arrest and Lebanese Army units conducted a massive sweep of the Beqaa . According to a Lebanese Army statement in 1998 : " Following the decision of the military prosecutor to order the arrest of Subhi al - Tufayli and his supporters on charges of forming armed groups , endangering national security and killing soldiers and civilians , the army took control of al - Tufayli ' s house . " In February 1998 Lebanese troops surrounded a village looking for al - Tufayli after two days of clashes that left eight people dead . al - Tufayli and about 100 of his fighters were allowed to escape to his hometown of Britel when the head of Syrian military intelligence in Baalbek , Col . Ali Safi , stepped in and forced advancing Lebanese Army units to halt . In April 1999 , al - Tufayli ' s forces overran a Hezbollah arms depot in the village of Nabichit , near Baalbeck , seizing large numbers of machine - guns , rocket - launchers and other military equipment . In February 2013 , al - Tufayli berated Hezbollah for fighting on behalf of the Syrian regime 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 . Views . al - Tufayli has been a stalwart in his opposition to the existence of the state of Israel , telling one funeral audience in 1992 that ` we know that we will not triumph in one or even several years but have prepared for a battle of centuries , ` to eliminate Israel . More recently , al - Tufayli has stated that Hassan Nasrallah is implementing the agenda of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran , Ali Khamenei , that the Islamic Republic ' s doctrine of " " ( Wilayat al - Faqih ) is un - Islamic and its government tyrannical .