Who is Hashem Safieddine, Hezbollah’s next projected leader?
A cousin of Nasrallah, Safieddine is blacklisted by the US and has expressed views in line with those of Palestinian terror organizations
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in airstrikes in a Beirut suburb on Friday has put the spotlight on the man widely regarded as his heir, Hashem Safieddine.
The Iran-backed terror group confirmed that Nasrallah, who led it for 32 years, had been killed in Friday’s strike. It now faces the challenge of choosing a new leader after the heaviest pounding it has faced in its 42-year-old history.
As head of the executive council, Safieddine oversees Hezbollah’s political affairs. He also sits on the Jihad Council, which manages the group’s military operations.
Safieddine is a cousin of Nasrallah and like him is a cleric who wears the black turban denoting ostensible descent from Islam’s Prophet Mohammed.
The US State Department designated him a terrorist in 2017 and in June he threatened a major escalation against Israel after the killing of another Hezbollah commander.
“Let [the enemy] prepare himself to cry and wail,” he said then.
Safieddine’s public statements often reflect Hezbollah’s alignment with the Palestinian cause.
At a recent event in Dahiyeh, Hezbollah’s stronghold in Beirut’s southern suburbs, he declared, “Our history, our guns and our rockets are with you” in a show of solidarity with Palestinian terrorists.
Nasrallah “started tailoring positions for him within a variety of different councils within Lebanese Hezbollah. Some of them were more opaque than others. They’ve had him come, go out and speak,” said Phillip Smyth, an expert who studies Iran-backed Shiite terrorist organizations.
Safieddine’s family ties and a physical resemblance to Nasrallah, as well as his religious status as a descendant of Mohammed, would all count in his favor.
He has also been vocal in his criticism of US policy. In response to American pressure on Hezbollah, he stated in 2017, “This mentally impeded, crazy US administration headed by [Donald] Trump will not be able to harm the resistance.”
