Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem as successor of slain chief Hassan Nasrallah

Hezbollah elected deputy head Naim Qassem as the chief of the group and successor of Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut in September.

The announcement was made by the group in a statement, saying, “Qassem was elected to take up the position due to his adherence to the principles and goal of Hezbollah.”

Qassem, 71, was elected in accordance with the established mechanism for choosing a secretary general at the meeting of the Shura Council.

However, Reuters quoted Israel’s stance on the appointment of Hezbollah’s new chief, stating, “His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organisation if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine."

"There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organisation as a military force," it wrote on X.

Qaseem was appointed as deputy chief of Hezbollah in 1991 by then-secretary general Abbas Al-Musawi, a leader whose life was tragically cut short by a helicopter attack just a year later.

He served long as a spokesperson of the group, conducting interviews with foreign media as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year. 

Qassem, who penned a book about the history of Hezbollah in 2005, televised his second address on October 8, since hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah intensified in September.

He was the first leader of Hezbollah, who appeared on television after Nasrallah’s killing in Beirut on September 27.

Following the killing of his predecessor he had said the group would choose his leader soon, and affirmed that “fight with Israel with solidarity with Palestinians will continue.”