The new head of Hezbollah, Naeem Qasim
Hezbollah appointed Naim Qassem as secretary general, more than a month after its former secretary general Hassan Nasrallah was killed in Israeli attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs in September. In accordance with the established system for electing the Secretary General, Hezbollah’s ‘Shura Council’ agreed to elect Qasim as head of Hezbollah.
Qassim delivered his first 19-minute televised speech after Nasrallah’s assassination from Beirut and his two subsequent speeches from Tehran. According to the report, out of fear of being assassinated, senior Iranian officials sent him to Tehran.
Who is Naeem Qasim?
Qasim has been deputy head of Hezbollah since 1991. He was appointed under former Hezbollah secretary-general Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack in 1992, and remained in office when Nasrallah assumed leadership. He began his political activity in the Lebanese Shiite movement Amal, founded in 1974. He then left it in 1979. He participated in the meetings that led to the formation of Hezbollah, founded in 1982 by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
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He has long been one of Hezbollah’s main spokespersons and has given numerous interviews to foreign media. When the cross-border conflict with Israel escalated during the war in Gaza, he said in June that it was Hezbollah’s decision not to expand the scope of the war, but that it would fight if pressured. He was the general coordinator of Hezbollah’s parliamentary election campaigns since the party first participated in the 1992 elections.
Qassim was born in the southern Lebanese town of Fila in 1953, and his father was a taxi driver in Beirut. Today Qasim is the father of six children. During his life he wrote 26 books. In recent years he represented Hezbollah at several official events held in Iran, including the appointment of Massoud Pezeshkian as president.
Qasim on Israel’s goal?
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said of Qasim that he has repeated the mistakes of previous Hezbollah leaders. Meeting with soldiers injured in the Hezbollah attack in Haifa, he also said that now Qasim’s turn will also come. The Israeli President said that not only is he wrong, but I am sure that his day will also come. Qassem is trying to make the world forget the fact that Hezbollah and its friends (referring to Iran) brought disaster to Lebanon.
