Sheikh Naim Qassem’s appointment comes weeks after Israel killed Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah on Tuesday announced that its deputy secretary, Sheikh Naim Qassem, had been elected as the chief of the anti-Israel armed group.
“Hezbollah’s (governing) Shura Council agreed to elect… Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary general of Hezbollah,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement, more than a month after its chief Hassan Nasrallah’s killing.
He was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding following the group’s 2006 war with Israel.
Since Nasrallah died in a huge Israeli air strike on September 27, Qassem has made three televised addresses.
Qassem had been part of the group for over 30 years. On October 8, Qassem said the conflict between Hezbollah and Israel was a war about who cries first, and Hezbollah would not cry first.
Also read: Israel confirms killing Hashem Safieddine, potential successor of slain Hezbollah chief Nasrallah
His appointment comes weeks after Israel killed Hezbollah’s Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
Israel also killed his proposed successor, Safieddine.
Qassem was appointed deputy chief in 1991 by the armed group’s then-secretary general Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year.
He remained the deputy even when Nasrallah became leader.
He is also the group’s spokesperson. He would often appear in interviews with foreign media during conflicts with Israel.
He was the first member of Hezbollah’s top leadership to make televised remarks after Nasrallah’s killing.
Naim Qassem was born in 1953 in Beirut to a family from Lebanon’s south.
Hezbollah was formed in 1982 after Israel invaded Lebanon. Qassem was one of the founding members.
He has been the general coordinator of Hezbollah’s parliamentary election campaigns since the group first contested them in 1992.
Qassem is known for wearing a white turban. His predecessors, Nasrallah and Safieddine, would wear black turbans denoted their status as descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.
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