Hezbollah’s new secretary-general is Naim Qassem, the longtime quantity two to the late Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel on September 27.
Hezbollah introduced the appointment on Tuesday through its Telegram channel.
Who’s Naim Qassem?
Qassem has a protracted historical past in Shia political activism and has been deputy secretary-general of Hezbollah since 1991 when Abbas al-Musawi was secretary-general.
Al-Musawi was additionally assassinated by Israel.
“He hoped to change into Hezbollah’s secretary-general when Musawi was killed in 1992,” Nicholas Blanford, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Center East programme, advised Al Jazeera.
“The Shura Council elected Nasrallah, who was Musawi’s prodigy.”
Qassem was born within the Nabatieh governorate’s Kfar Kila, a southern Lebanese village that has suffered by means of many Israeli assaults, particularly since final October.
One in every of Qassem’s spiritual mentors was the broadly revered Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, and Qassem himself has taught spiritual courses for many years in Beirut.
Has Qassem at all times been with Hezbollah?
Not at all times.
Within the Seventies, he joined the late Imam Musa al-Sadr’s Motion of the Dispossessed, which finally turned a part of the Amal Motion in Lebanon.
He left Amal and helped begin Hezbollah in 1982, turning into one of many group’s foundational clerics.
What has his function been in Hezbollah?
The secretive nature of Hezbollah means solely a few of Qassem’s roles are public data.
At one level, he oversaw a part of Hezbollah’s academic community and has additionally been concerned in overseeing the group’s parliamentary actions.
He has performed an vital public-facing function in Hezbollah through the years, and can be a member of the group’s Shura Council.
He famously printed a e book known as, Hizbullah, the Story from Inside, in 2005, which was translated into a number of languages.
A brand new, totally different chief
After Nasrallah’s assassination, some speculated that Hezbollah’s Shura Council may watch for the tip of Israel’s struggle on Lebanon to elect a brand new chief, however Qassem was chosen amid a struggle that will form the group’s future.
Qassem is a well-known face who has given many interviews. He addressed Hezbollah’s followers following Nasrallah’s assassination.
He wears a white turban, in contrast to Nasrallah and Safieddine whose black turbans signalled descendance from the prophet.
Instantly after Nasrallah’s assassination, there have been two candidates to interchange him: Qassem and Hashem Safieddine, who headed the manager council.
Safieddine was focused just a few days after Israel assassinated Nasrallah however his dying wasn’t introduced for a few weeks, reportedly on account of the truth that Israeli army strikes impeded the rescue course of.
A lot of Hezbollah’s army management has been assassinated by Israel in slightly over a month and its home political allies have began to place distance between themselves and the group.
“In the end, he’s one of many final standing figures of the political and spiritual management cadre that was eligible to be elected secretary-general,” Blanford mentioned. “I’m not shocked in any respect. It was a clear-cut choice.”
“I don’t assume it alerts a change, if something, Qassem is an indication of continuity [for Hezbollah].”
