He Loss of life of Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah It marks a pivotal second for the Lebanese terrorist group that has seen most of its high leaders worn out by Israel. With Hezbollah’s chief of operations Ibrahim Aqil and high commander Fuad Shukr additionally eradicated, Nasrallah’s cousin Hashem Safieddine is prone to head the Iran-backed group, in line with a Instances of Israel report.
Amid reviews that Safieddine was additionally amongst these killed within the assault on Hezbollah headquarters In Beirut, Reuters quoted a bunch supply as saying he was alive.
Safieddine, designated a terrorist by the US in 2017, oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs and is a member of the group’s Jihad Council. He additionally has ties to Iran’s regime because the father-in-law of Zeinab Soleimani, daughter of slain Iranian navy common Qassem Soleimani.
WHO IS HASHEM SAFIEDDINE?
Like Nasrallah, Safieddine is a cleric who wears a black turban and endures bodily trials. resemblance to former Hezbollah chief. These qualities are doubtless to assist him establish Nasrallah’s successor.
Along with gaining help from Hezbollah members, the brand new chief will even have to search out acceptance from the group’s supporters in Iran. Iran supplies most of Hezbollah’s funding, coaching and weapons.
Born in 1964 in Deir Qanun al-Nahr in southern Lebanon, Safieddine has been designated as Nasrallah’s successor because the Nineties, when he was known as again to Beirut from Iran, the place he was pursuing his research. He started main Hezbollah’s government council simply two years after Nasrallah assumed management of the group.
For the following 30 years, Safieddine oversaw Hezbollah’s civilian operations, together with its training system and funds. In the meantime, Nasrallah handled strategic issues.
Safieddine was additionally blacklisted by Saudi Arabia in 2017 for working within the pursuits of Hezbollah and supporting the Syrian regime.
In 2020, his son, Rida, married Zainab, the daughter of Qassem Soleimani, who was killed in a US airstrike in Baghdad that very same yr. When Nasrallah went underground following Israeli assassination makes an attempt in 2006, Safieddine attended occasions and funerals of Hezbollah members killed in Lebanon.
