Nationality Lebanese Residence Bodai, Lebanon Name Mohammad Yazbek | Years active 1980s–present Occupation Cleric | |
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Mohammad Yazbek is a Lebanese cleric. He is one of the Hezbollah founders and the head of the Sharia or religious council of the organization.
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Early life and education
Yazbek hails from a family based in Bodai, a town near Baalbek in northern Lebanon. He studied theology in Iraq.
Career
After completing his studies in Iraq, Yazbek returned to Lebanon in 1980. He actively contributed to the establishment of khawzas, Shiite religious institutions, in Lebanon. Abbas Musawi, Subhi Tufayli and Yazbek, all from the Bekaa valley, founded Hezbollah in 1982. Yazbek supported the revolt of Tufayli in 1987 against the power inequality in Hezbollah in favor of those, who hail from southern Lebanon. Then Yazbek became a senior Hezbollah leader in the Bekaa valley in the 1990s.
Yazbek is the representative of supreme leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, in the Bekaa valley. He is responsible for distributing the financial grants allocated by Khamenei's office to Hezbollah. In addition, Yazbek is the special representative of Hezbollah's secretary general Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and a member of Hezbollah's supreme council, exclusive shura council. In 2009, Yazbek was again elected to the shura council. He also heads the Sharia council of Hezbollah, which is also known as higher legal committee.
Assassination attempt
On 9 December 2005, Yazbek escaped an assassination attempt unhurt in Baalbek. The bomb blast outside his home caused no casualties.