Hashem Safieddine, cleric expected to succeed Nasrallah as head of terrorist group Hezbollah
Chairman of the Executive Council of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, a cleric Hashem Safieddineemerges as one of the main candidates to succeed his maternal cousin as secretary general of the political movement and armed group, Hassan Nasrallahkilled in Israeli bombing on the outskirts of Beirut.
This Sunday, the Al Arabiya network and several Arab media outlets reported that Safieddine had already been designated by authorities as a terrorist group. However, The Jerusalem Post reported in the evening that Hezbollah clarified on its official Telegram channel that it had not yet named its new chief.
Amid the uproar over the death of Nasrallah, who for decades was the most influential figure in Lebanon and the center of attention for the Jewish state, the world was waiting for the succession at the head of an organization that lives a critical moment under intense Israeli bombing raids that devastated their fiefdoms in Lebanon and carried off many of their senior officials.
Born in 1964 in the town of Deir Qanun in Nahr, South Lebanon, The clerics have been well-connected to Hezbollah’s leadership since its inception and quickly climbed the ranks in it since his appointment as a member of the Council (advisory body) of the Shura formation in 1995.
Like most Shiite clerics and senior Hezbollah officials, He continued his Islamic studies with his cousin Nasrallah until 1994 in the holy cities of Najaf (Iraq) and Qom (Iran), where the main schools are located for anyone who aspires to become a Grand Ayatollah.
No one doubts the influence Safieddineshe grew up in a highly respected family in southern Lebanon, and whose brother Abdullah serves as Hezbollah’s representative and spokesman in Iran, a major supporter of the political movement and its armed militias.
In fact, his connection to the Islamic Republic took a more personal turn after his son Reza married Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of the powerful commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Quds Force, in June 2020. Kasem Soleimaniwho was assassinated by the US in selective bombing in Baghdad in January of that year.
Like most senior officials of Hezbollah—an organization considered a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States, but not by the European Union, which considers only its armed wing to be terrorists— In 2017, Safieddine was designated a terrorist by Washingtonfor “key member” group, according to a memo released by the US State Department at the time.
Safieddine has served as head of Hezbollah’s executive council since 2001.but was also designated by the organization as military commander in southern Lebanon in 2010and key position conduct operations against Israel.
Like Nasrallah, he has rarely appeared since border clashes with the Jewish state began a little less than a year ago.
One of his last public interventions was in mid-September, when he condemned Israel’s assassination of the top commander of the Hezbollah militia, Fuad Shukrin a targeted bombing of the southern Beirut neighborhoods known as Dahye, the same area where Israel claims to have killed Nasrallah.
“An army once considered legendary has failed to achieve its goals despite continued mass destruction, murder, famine and siege,” he said at the time, calling Israel’s military adventures in the Gaza Strip and the Middle East a failure.
(With information from EFE)