He appears to be “the strongest candidate”. Hachem Safieddine, a prominent figure in Lebanese Hezbollah and closely linked to Iran, is emerging as the potential successor to his cousin Hassan Nasrallah, killed Friday in an Israeli strike on the southern suburbs of Beirut.
The Shura Council, the party’s highest body, should soon elect the successor to the charismatic Hassan Nasrallah. Hachem Safieddine is “the most likely candidate” to win this election, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP. In the meantime, the current number two of the pro-Iranian Islamist movement, Naïm Qassem, should take the lead of the movement.
VideoThe Israeli army announces having “eliminated” Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah
Distant relative of Hassan Nasrallah, 64, with whom the resemblance is striking, Hachem Safieddine is a few years his junior. He studied religion in Iran. His son is married to Zeinab, daughter of powerful Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, killed in 2020 in an American strike in Iraq. Soleimani was the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, responsible for external operations.
“A lot of authority”
Safieddine is one of the most important members of the Shura Council. Like Nasrallah, he wears the black turban of the Sayyed, the descendants of the prophet Mohammed, to whom he claims his affiliation. He was designated a “terrorist” by the US State Department in May 2017, and by Saudi Arabia.
“For several years, rumors have been circulating according to which Hachem Safieddine is the most likely candidate to succeed” Hassan Nasrallah, says Amal Saad, Hezbollah specialist and lecturer at Cardiff University.
Among the conditions to be met to take the reins of the movement, explains the researcher, one must “be a member of the Shura Council”, which includes seven people, and “be a religious personality”. However, Safieddine has “a lot of authority”, she asserts, “which makes him the strongest candidate”.
Fiery speeches
Unlike Hassan Nasrallah, who has rarely appeared in public since the last war between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, Safieddine is the face of the party in numerous political and religious events, and was recently noted for his fiery speeches at funerals. of party commanders killed by Israel.
“In our resistance, (…) when a commander becomes a martyr, another takes up the banner (…) with strength and determination,” he declared during the funeral of Commander Mohammed Neemeh Nasser, killed in an Israeli strike in the southern Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah himself succeeded Abbas Moussaoui in 1992, also assassinated by Israel. “Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has joined his fellow martyrs (…) whose march he led for nearly thirty years,” Hezbollah said on Saturday, confirming the death of its leader. Financed and armed by Iran, Israel’s sworn enemy, Hezbollah was created in 1982 at the initiative of the Revolutionary Guards.
