Naim Qassem, new leader of Hezbollah

Photo: Al-Manar via Agence France-Presse Since Nasrallah's death, Naim Qassem has appeared in three pre-recorded speeches broadcast by Hezbollah's al-Manar channel.

Agence France-Presse in Beirut

Published at 7:11 a.m.

• Middle East

Lebanese Hezbollah announced Tuesday that it had elected its number two, Naim Qassem, to head the pro-Iranian group at war with Israel, more than a month after the death of its secretary general Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli strike.

“The Shura Council,” Hezbollah's ruling body, “agreed to elect Sheikh Naim Qassem, 71, as Hezbollah's secretary general,” announced a statement from the Shiite Islamist group.

According to a source close to Hezbollah, he was elected two days ago, but the announcement was made on Tuesday.

The Shura Council now has five members, including Naim Qassem, after the death of two of them in Israeli strikes: Hassan Nasrallah and his expected successor, Hachem Safieddine, this source, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

“Naim Qassem will hold the position of secretary general until the end of the war. At that time, a new Shura Council will be elected,” the source added.

In its statement, Hezbollah “committed to keeping the flame of resistance alive (…) until victory.”

Hassan Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in a powerful Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Hachem Safieddine, a cousin of Nasrallah, was killed in another Israeli strike in early October. His death was confirmed on October 23. Several other leaders, including military leaders, have been killed by Israel in recent weeks.

A founder of Hezbollah

Since Nasrallah's death, Naim Qassem had appeared in three pre-recorded speeches broadcast by Hezbollah's channel, al-Manar.

He had assured that there was no vacuum at the head of the powerful group and that it continued to function despite Israel's attempts to decapitate it.

Away from military matters, he managed political issues and parliamentary and government issues, a source close to him told AFP.

After a year of exchanges of fire between Hezbollah and Israel, the Israeli army launched a campaign of massive airstrikes in Lebanon on September 23, targeting in particular the Hezbollah strongholds. Hezbollah.

Since then, more than 1,700 people have been killed, according to an AFP tally based on data from the Lebanese Health Ministry.

Israel says it wants to end the shootings targeting its territory and allow residents to return home, while Hezbollah continues to claim responsibility for daily attacks against northern Israel, which borders southern Lebanon.

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During his last speech on October 15, Naim Qassem told Israelis that “the solution” that would allow residents of northern Israel to return home was “a ceasefire,” threatening, if not, to strike “everywhere” in Israel.

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Close to the former leader

The career of this man with a white beard and a skull surrounded by the white turban of the Shiite clergy is closely linked to that of Hassan Nasrallah, assassinated on September 27 during an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Naïm Qassem was one of the founders of Hezbollah in 1982, created under the impetus of Iran in the wake of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon.

And it was in 1991 that he became deputy secretary general of the movement, a year after the end of the civil war in Lebanon (1975-1990).

When the leader of the movement, Abbas Moussaoui, was assassinated in an Israeli raid in 1992, it was Hassan Nasrallah who took the reins of Hezbollah.

The two men then managed side by side an armed organization which, from decade to decade, gained considerably in influence. To the point of becoming a key player in Middle Eastern geopolitics.

Speaking French and English, born in Beirut in a family originally from Kfar Fila, a village in southern Lebanon, Mr. Qassem regularly gave interviews to the media before the open war between Israel and Hezbollah that has lasted for more than a month.

While Hassan Nasrallah had hardly appeared in public since the last war with Israel in 2006 and kept his place of residence secret, Naïm Qassem was one of the rare Hezbollah leaders to freely appear in public.

In addition to his protocol duties, he also handled political issues and parliamentary and government files, a source close to him told AFP.

“Son of Nasrallah”

But since the recent Israeli escalation, he has not appeared in public.

He has limited himself to delivering three pre-recorded speeches broadcast by Hezbollah's Al-Manar channel, stating in each of them that Hezbollah supporters are “the sons of Nasrallah.”

Less charismatic than Hassan Nasrallah, he favors sober speeches, read in classical Arabic, unlike the former leader of the Hezbollah, who spoke on camera in fiery diatribes in Lebanese dialect, sometimes punctuated with biting irony.

Before founding Hezbollah, Naim Qassem had joined the ranks of the other major Shiite movement, Amal.

Married and the father of six children, this chemistry graduate from the Lebanese University taught in public high schools for six years, according to his official biography.

Born in 1953, he has published numerous books on religious education as well as essays on politics, again according to his official website.

He owns a network of schools mainly attended by his community, attending graduation ceremonies every year.

While Israeli strikes rained down relentlessly on Hezbollah's strongholds, killing thousands of dead, he addressed the Israelis in mid-October.

“The solution” that would allow the return home of the inhabitants of northern Israel, displaced by Hezbollah's gunfire for a year, was “a ceasefire,” he said, threatening, if not, to strike “everywhere” in Israel.

At the end of September, a week before the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, he attended the funeral of the “great commander” Ibrahim Aqil, formerly at the head of Hezbollah's elite force.

“Threats will not stop us: we are ready for all military scenarios” against Israel, he thundered at the time.