There has been speculation for weeks as to who is giving the orders to Hezbollah after the killing of Hassan Nasrallah. Now Naim Kassim becomes the new leader.
Around four weeks after the killing of its leader Hassan Nasrallah, the pro-Iranian Hezbollah militia in Lebanon has appointed a successor. The organization announced that the new Secretary General will be Naim Kassim, the current deputy head. Kassim had given several televised speeches since Nasrallah’s death. It is unclear where he is currently staying.
The Shura Council agreed on the election of Kassim for the post in accordance with the “recognized procedure for the election of the general secretary,” the Shiite militia said. Kassim now leads Hezbollah and the Islamic Resistance in a “noble mission”. The militia announced that it would continue to pursue its previous goals under the new leader “until victory.”
Israel’s army killed former leader Nasrallah in an airstrike in a southern suburb of Beirut at the end of September. Since then, Hashim Safi al-Din, head of the Hezbollah Executive Council, has been considered a possible successor. Last week, however, the militia confirmed that he had been killed – as portrayed by Israel’s military – weeks earlier in an attack on the Hezbollah intelligence headquarters near Beirut.
Kassim was born in a village near Nabatija in southern Lebanon and is around 70 years old. He is one of the members who founded Hezbollah in the early 1980s to fight against the Israeli occupation in Lebanon. He had been deputy head since 1992, making him one of the most influential figures within the organization alongside Nasrallah.
Israel has massively expanded its air strikes in Lebanon since September – and has also targeted Hezbollah’s leadership on several occasions. Israeli troops also invaded southern Lebanon last month. Hezbollah has continued to bombard northern Israel almost daily for over a year, including with rockets.
