Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah
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Lebanon's Hezbollah then-deputy leader Sheikh Naim Qassem attends a memorial service for senior commander Mohammed Nasser, who was killed on June 3 in an Israeli strike in south Lebanon.
FILE PHOTO: REUTERS
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BEIRUT – Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Oct 29 it had elected deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed slain secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburb
The group said in a written statement that its Shura Council elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary-general.
It pledged to keep “the flame of resistance burning” until victory is achieved against Israel after all-out war erupted on Sept 23.
Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah’s executive council, was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah.nnBut he too was killed in an Israeli strike
Qassem, 71, was one of Hezbollah’s founders in 1982 and has been the party’s deputy secretary-general since 1991, the year before Nasrallah took the helm.
He was born in Beirut in 1953 to a family from the village of Kfar Fila on the border with Israel.
He was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding following the group’s 2006 war with Israel.
Since Nasrallah’s death in a huge Israeli air strike on Sept 27, Qassem has made three televised addresses, speaking in more formal Arabic than the colloquial Lebanese favoured by Nasrallah.
He is considered by many in Lebanon to lack the charisma and gravitas of Nasrallah.
In his last speech on Oct 15, Qassem said a ceasefire was the only way Israel could guarantee the return of its residents to the north.
The Israeli government’s official Arabic account on X posted: “His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organisation if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.”
“There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organisation as a military force,” it wrote.
Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organisation by the United States and many other countries, has been in conflict with Israel since the war in Gaza began. The group has been firing missiles and drones on Israel in solidarity with Hamas.
Israel stepped up its campaign against Hezbollah in September, assassinating almost all its senior leaders and sending ground troops into southern Lebanon to attacks its positions. AFP, REUTERS
