Subhi al-Tufayli (Arabic: صبحي الطفيلي; born 1947) is a Lebanese senior Shi'ite cleric and politician who helped found Hezbollah in 1982 and served as its first secretary-general from 1989 until 1991.

Tufayli's split with Hezbollah arose during the 1990s after the death of co-founder Abbas al-Mousavi, when the faction of Hassan Nasrallah favoured by Iran began to emerge dominant.

[5][6] The main dispute was over Tufayli's insistence on shunning Lebanese politics and instead focus on fighting armed insurgency against Israel, which the Nasrallah faction downplayed.

[9] The cleric has since been active as a fierce opponent of Hezbollah and Iran; and has urged his followers to stand against Iranian hegemony in the region.

[15] Viewing him as the top-ranking Shia religious cleric within its ranks, Hezbollah elected al-Tufayli as their "President of the Islamic Republic" of Ba'albek.

Hezbollah militant units patrolled Beqaa valley, enforcing strict religious norms and dress-codes amongst its residents; and banned Western cultural trends.

As flashpoint in the rivalry was Tufayli's opposition to Hezbollah's participation in 1992 general elections, which was supported by Ali Khamenei.

Despite strong protests from the Tufayli faction, Hezbollah participated in elections, winning 12 seats and effectively transformed into a political party within the Lebanese system.

"[30] In the autumn he organised demonstrations in sixty villages around Brital and Nabi Chit protesting neglect of rural areas and competition from imported crops.

al-Tufayli added: "those Hezbollah fighters who are killing children and terrorizing people and destroying houses in Syria will go to hell".

[36] During the closing stages of the Battle of Aleppo in December 2016, al-Tufayli accused Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and his allies of "slaughtering thousands of Muslims", suggested they allowed the Islamic State to exist in order to undermine the Syrian opposition, and lamented what he described as a US-Russian alliance against Muslim interests.

Explaining his opposition to the Iranian regime and its geopolitical agenda, Tufayli states: "[Khomeini's] successors who came after him built their politics on Persian identity...