{"id":258395,"date":"2026-08-21T00:51:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/258395\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T00:51:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T00:51:28","slug":"lebanese-hezbollah-critic-says-iran-misled-shiite-supporters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/258395\/","title":{"rendered":"Lebanese Hezbollah critic says Iran ‘misled’ Shiite supporters"},"content":{"rendered":"

A well-known Lebanese Shiite scholar and critic of Hezbollah<\/a> said that Iran “brainwashed” people into supporting the terrorist organization in an N12 News interview on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Sheikh Muhammad al-Fu’ani, who lives in exile, said that the group “has brought destruction to Lebanon, and made us the object of hatred and disgust.”<\/p>\n

“Hezbollah claims to be religious and preaches modesty and morality, but its interior is not pure,” he told the network when asked why he opposes the group.<\/p>\n

“Therefore, as long as its people do not keep their word, they are not speaking the truth,” he added.<\/p>\n

Two groups of Lebanese Shiites back Hezbollah, Fu’ani claims<\/p>\n

When asked about the state of Lebanon’s<\/a> Shia population, Fu’ani told the interviewer that the population is divided in two groups. One group is made up of “mercenaries” that are ready to “abandon ship.”<\/p>\n

\"AA demonstrator waves the Lebanese flag in front of riot police during a protest in Beirut, Lebanon, August 8, 2020 (credit: GORAN TOMASEVIC\/REUTERS)<\/p>\n

The other group is being deceived, he claimed, adding that these people were brainwashed by the hands of Iran to believe in a fantasy of religious domination in the region. This group was a sort of “scapegoat,” he said.<\/p>\n

“[Iran] made them fight, made their children die. Their livelihoods were lost, their dreams shattered, and their memories forgotten,” he charged, adding that “[Iran] misled them.”<\/p>\n

Fu’ani described Hezbollah’s current situation as complicated as a result of the heavy losses for the group in past years.<\/p>\n

“Those whose children were killed hold a grudge against Hezbollah,” he said, “and those who lost their livelihoods and their memories are waiting for the bottom line: that the funding for [Hezbollah] will run out, and there won’t be money to pay [salaries,] and they will turn on the group.”<\/p>\n

As for the first group, he said, “when they see signs of the end of [Hezbollah] they will already abandon” the group.<\/p>\n

“For them it’s nothing more than a business,” he added.<\/p>\n

When asked on the likelihood of Hezbollah disarming, Fu’ani showed optimism, citing the aftermath of President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s<\/a> successful overthrow of Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n

“The Radwan force, militias from Iraq, Assad’s Syrian army, and all the mercenaries from Pakistan and Afghanistan, in one moment fled the holy places.”<\/p>\n

Similarly, he said, Hezbollah will be forced to leave Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The consolidation of arms in Lebanon has been mandated by the government but consistently rejected by Hezbollah.<\/p>\n

“As far as we are concerned, you are ‘the people of the Book,'” Fu’ani said, addressing Israelis, adding that “originally there is no enmity between us and you.”<\/p>\n

“Know that the Shiites are not part of the terrorist organization, and the Israeli public should tell its government: ‘We want good relations with the Lebanese people, and it is your responsibility to make this happen.'”<\/p>\n

Direct talks between Israel and Lebanon have been held several times this year, marking the first time in decades that representatives of the two countries meet face to face.<\/p>\n

Mediated by the US, discussions have covered a wide array of topics, including Hezbollah’s future disarmament<\/a> and an Israeli withdrawal from positions in southern Lebanon.<\/p>\n

The next round of talks are expected to be held in September.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A well-known Lebanese Shiite scholar and critic of Hezbollah said that Iran “brainwashed” people into supporting the terrorist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":258211,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[672,847,34731,100,2561,93,1441,95,545],"class_list":["post-258395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lebanon","tag-ahmed-al-sharaa","tag-beirut","tag-hamas-disarmament","tag-hezbollah","tag-israel-hezbollah","tag-lebanon","tag-naim-qassem","tag-syria","tag-terrorism"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/117130761787599676","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=258395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/258395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/258211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=258395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=258395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=258395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}