Naim Qasim elected as new leader of Hezbollah

2024-10-29 17:32:00

BEIRUT (AP) — Hezbollah announced Tuesday it has selected cleric Nasrallah after its longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike in a Beirut suburb in late September. Naim Kassem as leader of Lebanese political paramilitary groups.

Hezbollah’s decision-making consultative committee elected 71-year-old Qasim as its new secretary-general and vowed to continue Nasrallah’s policies “until victory is achieved,” the organization said in a statement.

Since Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli offensive, many of Hezbollah’s top officials have been eliminated, and the white-turbaned, gray-bearded cleric has often become the public face of the Lebanese militant group. He was a founding member of the organization, but many supporters believed he lacked the oratory skills of his predecessors.

In a televised speech earlier this month, Qasim, who holds the clerical title of Sheikh, claimed that Hezbollah’s military capabilities remained intact after Nasrallah’s assassination and warned Israelis that as the fighting continues , they will suffer more.

Qasim is subject to sanctions by the United States, which considers Hezbollah a terrorist organization. His appointment comes as no surprise as he has served as Nasrallah’s deputy for 32 years and has long been Hezbollah’s public face, giving interviews to local and foreign media.

“This is a message to Lebanon and abroad that Hezbollah has regrouped,” said Qasim Kasir, a Lebanese analyst close to Hezbollah.

Kasir added that Qasim’s appointment showed that Hezbollah was handling its own affairs, rather than being handled by advisers from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guards, as some had reported.

Qasim said in an interview with The Associated Press in July that he did not believe Israel was capable of — or had not yet decided to do so — a full-scale war against Hezbollah. But he warned that even if Israel attempts to conduct limited operations in Lebanon and avoid an all-out war, it should not expect the fighting to remain limited.

___

This story was translated from English by AP editors with the help of generated artificial intelligence tools.

1730223573
#Naim #Qasim #elected #leader #Hezbollah