Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Tuesday it has 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 over a month ago.
Hezbollah pledged to keep “the flame of resistance burning” until victory is achieved against Israel after all-out war erupted on September 23.
The group said in a written statement that its Shura Council had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general.
He was appointed as Hezbollah’s deputy chief in 1991 by the armed group’s then-secretary general Abbas al-
Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year.
Qassem remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah’s leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year.
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Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27, and senior Hezbollah figure Hashem Safieddine – considered the most likely successor – was killed in Israeli strikes a week later.
Since Nasrallah’s killing, Qassem has given three televised addresses, including one on Oct. 8 in which he said the armed group supported efforts to reach a ceasefire for Lebanon.
He is considered by many in Lebanon to lack the charisma and gravitas of Nasrallah.
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 organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.”
“There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,” it wrote.
The source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to the press, said a new Shura Council would be elected after the end of the war.
The council may then opt to elect a new leader or keep Qassem in the top post, the source said.
Reported by Reuters
