To enemies, he has been the head of a terrorist organisation and a proxy for Iran’s theocracy in its tussle for influence in the Middle East.
Lebanon’s Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's regional influence has been on display over nearly a year of conflict ignited by the Gaza offensive, as Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, and Yemeni and Iraqi groups followed suit, operating under the umbrella of “The Axis of Resistance”.
“We are facing a great battle,” Nasrallah said in an August 1 speech at the funeral of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli strike on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
Yet when thousands of Hezbollah members were injured and dozens killed, when their communications devices exploded in an apparent Israeli attack last week, that battle began to turn against his group.
Responding to the attacks on Hezbollah’s communications network in a Sept 19 speech, Nasrallah vowed to punish Israel.
“This is a reckoning that will come, its nature, its size, how and where? This is certainly what we will keep to ourselves and in the narrowest circle even within ourselves,” he said.
He did not give a broadcast address since then.
Wearing a black turban, Nasrallah used his addresses to rally Hezbollah’s base but also to deliver carefully calibrated threats, often wagging his finger as he did so.
He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992, aged just 35, the public face of a once shadowy group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in 1982 to fight Israeli occupation forces.
Israel killed his predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, in a helicopter attack. Nasrallah led Hezbollah when its guerrillas finally drove Israeli forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation.
Hashem Safieddine to head Hezbollah after Hassan Nasrallah's death in airstrike
Hashem Safieddine is a cousin of Hassan Nasrallah, who served as chief of the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group for 32 years.
Hashem Safieddine will replace Hassan Nasrallah as the chief of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah after the latter was eliminated by Israel in its airstrikes on Beirut. Safieddine is a cousin of Nasrallah, who served as the chief of the group for 32 years.
He bears physical resemblance to Nasrallah and joined the group along with his cousin in its early days.
Born in 1964 in Deir Qanun al-Nahr in southern Lebanon, Safieddine has been designated as Nasrallah's successor since the 1990s when he was called back to Beirut from Iran, where he was pursuing his studies.
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| Credit : 'India Today' |
Safieddine, who was designated a terrorist by the United States in 2017, oversees Hezbollah's political affairs and is a member of the group's Jihad Council.
He also has ties to Iran's regime as the father-in-law of Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of slain Iranian military general Qassem Soleimani. He was blacklisted by Saudi Arabia in the same year for supporting the Syrian regime.
Celebrations broke out in Syria after the news of Nasrallah's death surfaced. Hezbollah is seen as an enemy by the people as the militant group has helped President Bashar al-Assad suppress the Syrian revolution.
As head of the executive council, Safieddine oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs. He also sits on the Jihad Council, which manages the group’s military operations. In the last 30 years, he has overseen Hezbollah's civilian operations, including its education system and finances. Nasrallah, meanwhile, looked after the group's strategic matters.
Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he gave the order to eliminate Nasrallah, adding that his death became an "essential condition" for Israel to achieve its war goals. He also called Nasrallah's death as a "historical turning point".
"Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world," Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.
Notably, the IDF has claimed to have eleminiated another top Hezbollah leader. The IDF said that Hassan Khalil Yassin, who headed a unit in Hezbollah’s intelligence division that was tasked with locating Israeli military and civilian sites in Israel to be targeted, was also eliminated.
EDIT COMMENT in Dawn
THIS is an extremely dangerous moment for the Middle East, and indeed the international community.
On Friday, a massive Israeli bombing raid targeting Beirut resulted in the killing of Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah, secretary general of the Lebanese pro-Iran armed group Hezbollah. The outfit confirmed the death of their leader on Saturday, and considering Nasrallah’s influence in Lebanese politics, regional geopolitics, and Hezbollah’s role as the vanguard of Iran’s ‘Axis of Resistance’, this assassination is likely to cause major shockwaves across the Middle East.
Hezbollah had been trading fire with Israel since Oct 8, 2023, after Hamas launched its armed incursion inside the Zionist state. Over the past few weeks, Israel has stepped up its attacks inside Lebanon, launching a savage bombing campaign on Monday which has resulted in hundreds of Lebanese fatalities and uprooted tens of thousands of people. Israel had also been targeting many key Hezbollah commanders over the past few months. Nasrallah’s murder is the most devastating blow to the movement. But while Tel Aviv may have won a tactical victory with the assassination, it has set the stage for a spiral of violence that will be very difficult to control.
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