Hezbollah announced on Tuesday that it has chosen cleric Naim Kassem to lead the Lebanese fighting group after the killing of its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah in an Israeli air strike on a Beirut suburb in late September.
The group said in a statement that Hezbollah’s decision-making Shura Council elected Kassem, 71, as its new secretary-general and vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved.”
Since Nasrallah's death as part of an Israeli offensive that took out many of Hezbollah's senior officials, the white-turbaned cleric with a grey beard has often been the public face of the Lebanese group.
He is one of its founding members but is widely seen by supporters as lacking his predecessor's oratory skills.
In a televised speech earlier this month, Kassem, who carries the clerical title of sheikh, claimed Hezbollah's military capabilities were intact after Nasrallah's assassination and warned Israelis they will only suffer further as fighting continues.
'Igniting war in Lebanon'
His appointment came as no surprise since he had served as Nasrallah's deputy for 32 years and had also long been Hezbollah’s public face, giving interviews to local and foreign media outlets.
"This is a message to Lebanon and abroad that Hezbollah has reorganised itself," said Qassim Qassir, a Lebanese analyst close to Hezbollah.
Kassem's appointment shows Hezbollah is running its own affairs and not — as some have reported — that advisers from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard are now in charge of the group, Qassir added.
In an interview with The Associated Press in July, Kassem said he didn’t believe that Israel had the capacity — or had yet made the decision — to launch a full-blown war with Hezbollah.
But he warned that even if Israel intended to undertake a limited operation in Lebanon that stopped short of a full-scale war, it should not expect the fighting to remain limited.
“No one knows the consequences of igniting the war in Lebanon, regionally and even internationally,” Kassem said at the time, speaking from the group’s political headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
He said he was proud of Hezbollah's achievements in its “support front” for Hamas, saying it “required sacrifices on our part.”
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