BEIRUT: Lebanese armed group Hezbollah named Naim Qassem as its new leader on Tuesday (Oct 29) but Israel said his tenure would be “temporary”, an apparent threat after it killed his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut over a month ago.
“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X with a photo of Qassem.
Earlier, Iran-backed Hezbollah said in a written statement that its Shura Council had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general.
Qassem was appointed as Hezbollah’s deputy chief in 1991 by the armed group’s then secretary general Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year.
Qassem remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah’s leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media, including while cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year.
Nasrallah was killed on Sep 27 in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, and senior Hezbollah figure Hashem Safieddine, considered the most likely successor, was killed in Israeli strikes a week later.
