Hezbollah names deputy leader Naim Qassem as secretary-general, successor to Nasrallah

Hezbollah announced on Monday that deputy head Naim Qassem will serve as its secretary-general, succeeding slain chief Hassan Nasrallah as the leader of the Iran-backed Lebanese terror group.

A longtime deputy to Nasrallah, Qassem has served as the terror group’s acting leader since Israel killed Nasrallah in a strike in Beirut last month.

The presumed successor to Nasrallah, Hashem Safieddine, was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut earlier this month before he was officially named secretary-general. He was presumed dead after a series of strikes targeted a Hezbollah compound in southern Beirut in early October, and his death was officially announced last week.

Qassem, Hezbollah’s new leader, was born in 1953 in southern Lebanon. He served as a Shiite cleric and educator until the late 1970s, when he joined the Amal terror group and political party during the Lebanese civil war.

When a number of Amal members split from the party to found Hezbollah in 1982, Qassem followed and was appointed deputy leader in 1991 under founding leader Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year.

Qassem has long been one of Hezbollah’s leading spokesmen, but he is considered by many in Lebanon to lack the charisma and gravitas of Nasrallah.

Since Nasrallah’s killing, Qassem has given three televised addresses, including one on September 30, days after Nasrallah was killed, where he appeared to be sweating profusely while reading prepared remarks.

 (The Times of Israel)

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