Hezbollah names former deputy of Hassan Nasrallah as new leader

This Tuesday (29) Hezbollah named Naim Qassem the new leader of the Lebanese Shiite group. Qassem will succeed Hassan Nasrallah, killed on September 27 in an Israeli attack on the capital Beirut. Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant stated that Hezbollah’s new leader will not last “for long.”

“The Shura Council [órgão diretivo do movimento] agreed to elect Sheikh Naim Qassem as Secretary General of Hezbollah,” the movement announced in a statement.

Qassem’s choice comes after the death of Hassan Safieddine, leader of the council who was appointed as Nasrallah’s successor. He was also murdered in an Israeli attack.

Qassem, 71, was part of the founders of Hezbollah in 1982 and had been deputy secretary general of the political-military formation since 1991, a year before Nasrallah took control. He was born in Beirut in 1953, into a family from the city of Kfar Fila, on the border with Israel.

Qassem had been the deputy secretary-general of the political-military movement since 1991, a year before Nasrallah assumed leadership. The now leader of Hezbollah was the leader with the highest position in the group who continued to appear in public since Nasrallah began spending most of his time in hiding, after Hezbollah’s war against Israel in 2006.

Since Nasrallah’s death, Qasem has given three televised speeches, using more formal Arabic than his predecessor’s colloquial Lebanese. In his televised speeches, he declared that the extremist group supported efforts to reach a ceasefire amid the conflict with Israel, which intensified last month, when the Jewish Army began directly attacking members of Hezbollah in incursions into Lebanese territory.

Following Qassem’s appointment, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared that Hezbollah’s new leader will not last ‘for long’.

“Temporary appointment. Not for long”, wrote the minister on the social network X, alongside a photo of Qassem.