BEIRUT (Reuters) -Hashem Safieddine, whose killing was confirmed on Tuesday by Israel’s navy in its confrontation with Hezbollah, is broadly seen as Hassan Nasrallah’s possible successor as head of the Iran-backed group.
A relative of Nasrallah, he has been operating the motion alongside its deputy secretary basic Naim Qassem since Nasrallah’s assassination by Israel on Sept. 27.
Safieddine has sat on the group’s Jihad Council – the physique liable for its navy operations. He’s additionally head of its government council, overseeing monetary and administrative affairs for the Iran-backed group.
Whereas not as well-known to Israelis as Nasrallah, Safieddine is seen by Israel as a number one goal in what it deems a terrorist organisation and a proxy for arch-foe Iran.
Safieddine assumed a distinguished position talking for Hezbollah in the course of the previous 12 months of hostilities with Israel, addressing funerals and different occasions that Nasrallah had lengthy prevented for safety causes.
He was the primary Hezbollah official to talk in public after the group’s Palestinian ally Hamas attacked southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, igniting the Gaza battle that drew the Lebanese Shi’ite Islamist motion right into a parallel battle with Israel.
With observers throughout the Center East ready to see what Hezbollah may do to assist Hamas, Safieddine instructed a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs the day after the assault that the group’s “weapons and our rockets are with you”.Â
“The whole lot we now have is with you,” Safieddine declared.
Like Nasrallah, Safieddine wears the black turban denoting his standing as a sayyed, or descendent of the Prophet Mohammed. He bears a robust bodily resemblance to Nasrallah.
He hails from a distinguished Lebanese Shi’ite household, and was born within the nation’s predominantly Shi’ite south.
Safieddine studied at non secular seminaries within the Iranian metropolis of Qom earlier than returning to Lebanon within the Nineties to imagine management duties within the group.        Â
He maintained robust ties to Hezbollah’s backers in Iran.Â
His son, Rida, is married to the daughter of the late Iranian basic Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Pressure till he was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Baghdad in 2020.Â
His brother, Abdullah, serves as Hezbollah’s consultant in Tehran.Â
As government council chief, Safieddine performs a job some likened to that of prime minister of a authorities, liable for an array of Hezbollah establishments concerned in well being care, schooling, tradition, and building, and different actions.  Â
He led efforts to rebuild the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut following the group’s 2006 battle with Israel, when swathes of the world have been flattened by Israeli airstrikes. In a 2012 speech, Safieddine stated the post-war reconstruction had amounted to “a brand new victory” over Israel.
Phillip Smyth, an knowledgeable who research Iran-backed Shi’ite militias, stated Nasrallah “began tailoring positions for him inside quite a lot of completely different councils inside Lebanese Hezbollah. A few of them have been extra opaque than others”.
The U.S. State Division declared him a specifically designated world terrorist in 2017. In response to U.S. strain on Hezbollah that very same 12 months, he stated “this mentally impeded, loopy U.S. administration headed by Trump will be unable to hurt the resistance”.
