BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hassan Nasrallah and his Hezbollah movement can no longer count on the unwavering support of the majority of Lebanon's Shiite community, a status they long enjoyed. In particular Hezbollah's close ties with Iran are being viewed with suspicion by those Lebanese Shiites who fear their country's sovereignity is being jeopardised. "Nasrallah's total submission to the Iranian ayatollahs is transforming Lebanon into a province of the Islamic Republic," Sobhi Tofeili, a former Hezbollah secretary general who was expelled from the movement in 1999 for his anti-Teheran stance, told Adnkronos International (AKI).

Two other prominent Shiite clerics, Ali al-Amin and Mohammad Haj Hassan have also distanced themselves from Nasrallah.

"Nasrallah has transformed Hezbollah in a toy in the hands of the Iranians and into an instrument of their regional policy," Hassan, who heads the Association of Free Shiites, told AKI.

"The blind obedience of Nasrallah and other Hezbollah leaders towards Iran and its supreme leader the Ayatollah Khamenei risks plunging Lebanon into another civil war," he added.

"The weapons [supplied by Iran] and the militias cannot guarantee Lebanon's Shiites their rights and the violence that characterises Nasrallah and his group can only breed war and destruction," Hassan said.

Several secular Shiite leaders have also criticised the Hezbollah leader's interpretation of the Shiite Muslim faith.

"More and more Shiites are not prepared to follow those who want to turn back the clock of history and impose on us medieval traditions and customs," Ahmad al-Assad, leader of the Shiite party, Kefayat, told AKI.

As for it political role, "Hezbollah must stop its useless opposition to the Siniora government and work together with all the other political forces in the country to overcome the current crisis," al-Assad.

Nasrallah himself has dismissed such criticism.

"We, don't receive orders from Teheran or the Ayatollah Khamenei," the Hezbollah leader said during last week's Shiite Ashura holy day commemorations.

"We are against any hypothesis of Shiite domination of the region, since this would be detrimental for our peaceful co-existence with our Sunni brethren." Nasrallah said.

Such statements observers say appear at odds with the reality that Hezbollah receives most of its weapons from Iran and that it often trumpets the close ties; a giant poster of Nasrallah appears on a road named after Ayatollah Rohollah Khomeni, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The words underneath the portrait read: "Lebanon destroyed by the Zionists will be rebuilt better than before by Hassan Nasrallah with the help of the Islamic Republic." -AKI