BEIRUT: Lebanon’s Hezbollah motion introduced on Tuesday (Oct 29) that it has chosen deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Hasan Nasrallah as chief after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut final month.
“Hezbollah’s (governing) Shura Council agreed to elect … Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary normal of Hezbollah,” the Iran-backed group mentioned in a press release, greater than a month after Nasrallah’s killing.
Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Hezbollah’s central headquarters on Sep 27. He had led the group for 32 years.
Hashem Safieddine, the top of Hezbollah’s government council, was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah. However he too was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Qassem, 71, was considered one of Hezbollah’s founders in 1982 and has been the celebration’s deputy secretary normal since 1991, the 12 months earlier than Nasrallah took the helm.
