Oct. 29 (UPI) — Hezbollah on Tuesday announced that its deputy secretary general, Nasim Qassem, will serve as its new leader.
Qassem was elected to replace long-time Hezbollah leader Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, ending an ongoing succession crisis to lead the Iran-backed terror group.
Nasrallah was killed last month in Beirut in airstrikes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had described as “necessary.”
The Iranian-supported Hezbollah said Qassem was elected to take up the position due to his “adherence to the principles and goals of Hezbollah,” according to a statement reported by Al Jazeera.
Qassem, 71, was born in south Lebanon and sat in the number two role for more than 30 years since 1991. A founding member, Qassem is one of the few known Hezbollah leaders to remain alive after Israel intensified military strikes in recent weeks which took out a large contingency of Hezbollah leadership.
On social media Tuesday morning, the Israeli government said his tenure “may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization” if he follows in the footsteps of other Hezbollah leaders.
“There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,” read part of a translated statement by Israel’s Arabic X account.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant characterized Qassem’s new role as a “temporary appointment.”
Qassem was picked to lead Hezbollah after the recent killing of Hashem Safieddine, who experts said had been next in line to succeed Nasrallah.
Hezbollah is a powerful Shia Islamist political party and large Middle Eastern paramilitary unit largely in control of Lebanon and its government just to Israel’s north. It is designated as a terrorist organization by Israel and the United States.
The group has been attacking Israel in ongoing rocket and drone strikes for several months now as Israel’s war with Gaza and systematic removal of Palestinians remains ongoing.
Recent reports indicate at least 59 people had so far been killed by Hezbollah in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights. And according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry, over the year more than 2,700 Lebanese people have been killed and at least 12,500 wounded in Lebanon by Israeli military strikes.
Qassem and Nasrallah had led Hezbollah talks in a proposed prisoner swap in 2000 of four Israeli detainees for all Lebanese, Palestinian and other Arab detainees that were held by Israel.
And later in 2006 during protests in Lebanon demanding the resignation of then-Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, it’s claimed an estimated 1 million Hezbollah loyalists had descended on downtown Beirut in a show of support led by Qassem.
“This is the largest crowd ever to attend a demonstration in Lebanon,” Qassem, then-Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general, told a crowd of chanting protest attendees that day in the Lebanese capital while many waved green-and-yellow Hezbollah flags yelling “Death to America, death to Israel, long live a dignified Lebanon.”
Behind bullet-proof glass that day nearly 20 years ago, Qassem said, “there is no place for America in Lebanon.”