Hezbollah names deputy head Naim Qassem as successor to slain chief Hassan Nasrallah
By Shweta Kumari | First Published Oct 29, 2024, 2:16 PM ISTLebanon's Hezbollah elected its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem to succeed former head Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday.
Lebanon's militant group Hezbollah elected its deputy secretary general Naim Qassem to succeed former head Hassan Nasrallah on Tuesday, news agency AP reported. Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut's southern suburbs on September 27.
The group said in a statement that Hezbollah’s decision-making Shura Council elected Qassem (71), who had been Nasrallah’s deputy leader for over three decades, as the new secretary-general. Hezbollah vowed to continue with Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”
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Qassem was appointed as Hezbollah's 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 in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah's leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year.
Hassan Nasrallah was killed on September 27, and senior Hezbollah figure Hashem Safieddine - considered the most likely successor - was killed in Israeli strikes a week later.
The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting around 250. Some 100 hostages are still inside Gaza, a third of whom are believed to be dead.
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