The former general secretary of Hezbollah has condemned the Iranian Supreme Leader for the device explosions in Lebanon and Syria and has called for him to be put on trial.
Subhi Al-Tufayli, who founded the militant group in 1982, said in a video posted to his YouTube channel that Khamenei, Hezbollah’s leaders in Lebanon, and “all the people surrounding them” shared in the “failure” of the device attacks last week, when first pagers and then walkie-talkies detonated over two days.
He told his 57,000 subscribers that everyone responsible should all “face the courts” and be trialled. Those guilty of failure should be punished, and “every criminal should be put to death”.
The Shi'ite cleric, who served as the first general secretary of Hezbollah between 1989 and 199, said corruption had spread throughout Iran under Khamenei and blamed the autocrat for the assassination of former Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, calling the terror chief a “martyr”.
Haniyeh was killed by a blast in Tehran in July.
Subhi Al-Tufayli founded Hezbollah in 1982 and was expelled from the militant group in 1998 (Credit: YouTube)
"The real failure is not here [in Lebanon]. Here they failed too and they bear the responsibility, but their main man in Tehran [has failed]. This [pager] incident should send them all – beginning with Khamenei, through the Hezbollah leaders in Lebanon, and ending with all the people surrounding them – to face the courts,” said Al-Tufayli.
“This should be a real and genuine trial. It should be pure, accurate, and without fear or love of anyone, and all the people who failed should be punished, and every criminal should be put to death."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei prepares to cast his ballot during the runoff of the presidential elections in Tehran on July 5, 2024 (Getty Images)
Since being expelled from Hezbollah in the 1998, Al-Tufayli has become a very vocal critic of the militant group’s leadership and its subordination to the Iranian regime.
Al-Tufayli was replaced as general secretary of Hezbollah by Abbas Al Mussawi in 1991, who was assassinated in an Israeli helicopter strike the following year, paving the path for Hassan Nasrallah rise to leadership.
Hezbollah fighters in Beirut (Getty Images)
His time as general secretary of Hezbollah was marked by heavy rivalry between his followers, who pursued a more independent policy, and Khamenei loyalist Nasrallah, whose faction which favoured a pro-Iranian line.
With the backing of Khamenei and Iranian President Rafsanjani, the Nasrallah faction grew in prominence, paving the way for him to become the third secretary general of Hezbollah in 1993.
Addressing Khamenei on his YouTube channel, Al-Tufayli said: “The president of Iran was killed, many scientists have been killed, and there have been bombings, and the martyr Haniyeh was killed... We all know full well that corruption has filled Iran, and that the collaborators are firmly settled in Iran in its entirety.
"For how long have you been in power, my dear? Since 1989. That is 35 or 36 years.”
Al-Tufayli said for 36 years, that corruption has been growing. “Because of the gang that you are heading. 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours.'
“And the corruption is spreading. Do you know why? Because you do not seek out the enemy. You seek out your own people, your own children. If someone takes to the street and says 'I'm hungry,' you defend the [Islamic] Republic by killing him.”
According to Commander. (res.) Eyal Pinko, a former Israeli Navy officer, the first wave of device explosions hit 3,000 Hezbollah operatives in “less than a second”, damaging the militant group’s entire senior command structure.
Mourners toss rice over the coffin of a Hezbollah terrorist killed in pager attacks in Lebanon (Getty Images)
Since Israel’s military operations began focusing on Southern Lebanon, several senior Hezbollah commanders have been killed in strikes including Ibrahim Aqil on Friday and Ibrahim Qubais on Wednesday.
