Beirut: Hezbollah has appointed Sheikh Naim Qassem, a longtime figure within the Iran-supported Lebanese group, as its new leader on Tuesday. With over three decades of leadership experience, Qassem, the former deputy secretary-general, has played a pivotal role in Hezbollah’s operations and strategy.
In an address on October 8, from an undisclosed location, Qassem described the ongoing conflict between Hezbollah and Israel as a battle of resilience, vowing that Hezbollah "would not cry first," despite Israel’s strikes. However, he expressed support for parliamentary speaker and Hezbollah ally Nabih Berri’s attempts to negotiate a ceasefire, notably omitting any demands for a Gaza truce as a prerequisite to halting Hezbollah's actions against Israel.
Qassem’s 30-minute televised statement followed an attempted Israeli strike on senior Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine and the October 23 confirmation of Safieddine’s death. Qassem, initially appointed as deputy in 1991 by then-leader Abbas al-Musawi (who was killed the following year in an Israeli strike), maintained his position under Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and has become a prominent spokesperson for Hezbollah.
Qassem’s recent address marked his second televised appearance since Israel-Hezbollah tensions escalated in September. Following the assassination of Nasrallah in an Israeli airstrike on September 27, Qassem became the first top Hezbollah official to address the public, signaling that Hezbollah would name a new leader soon and continue supporting Palestinians in the fight against Israel.
Born in Beirut in 1953, Qassem began his political journey with the Amal Movement but left in 1979 after Iran’s Islamic Revolution. He then participated in discussions that led to Hezbollah's founding in 1982, backed by Iran's Revolutionary Guards following Israel’s invasion of Lebanon. In addition to coordinating Hezbollah’s election campaigns since 1992, Qassem authored a book on the group in 2005, offering a rare insider perspective. Notably, Qassem wears a white turban, unlike the black turbans of Nasrallah and Safieddine, symbolizing their lineage from the Prophet Muhammad.