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BEIRUT, Oct 29 (Reuters) – Lebanese armed group named Hezbollah Naim Qassemappointed as new leader on Tuesday, but Israel said his term would be “temporary”, an apparent threat after it assassinated his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut more than a month ago.
“Temporary appointment. Not for long,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant posted on X with a photo of Qassem.
Earlier, Iran-backed Hezbollah said in a written statement that the Shura Council had chosen 71-year-old Qassem, in accordance with the established mechanism for electing a secretary general.
Qassem was appointed deputy head of Hezbollah in 1991 by the armed group’s then-secretary general Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter strike the following year.
Qassem then remained in his role Nasrallah became leader and was long one of Hezbollah’s main spokespersons, conducting interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the past year.
Nasrallah was killed on September 27 in an Israeli airstrike 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.
Since Nasrallah’s killing, Qassem has made three televised speeches, including one on October 8, in which he said the armed group supported efforts to broker a ceasefire for Lebanon.
Many in Lebanon see him as lacking Nasrallah’s charisma and gravitas.
In its official Arab report on
“There is no solution in Lebanon other than dismantling this organization as a military force,” the report wrote.
(Reporting by Maya Gebeily, Jana Choukeir and Clauda Tanios, Editing by William Maclean, Sharon Singleton and Gareth Jones)