By Shahrokh Saei
TEHRAN- The election of Sheikh Naim Qassem as the new leader of Hezbollah has highlighted the failure of Israel’s strategy to eliminate the Lebanese resistance movement’s leadership.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah announced that Qassem will succeed Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah who was assassinated by Israel more than a month ago.
Qassem, who has been serving as Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general for more than 30 years, will take the helm of the resistance group upon a decision made by its main decision-making body, the Shura Council.
“Based on faith in Allah the almighty, commitment to the bona fide Islam of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH), adherence to the principles and goals of Hezbollah, and in accordance with the approved mechanism for electing a secretary-general, Hezbollah Shura Council agreed to elect his eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem as a secretary-general, who will carry the blessed banner in this path,” Hezbollah said in a statement on Tuesday, according to Al-Manar.
Hezbollah named Sheikh Naim Qassem as its new leader on Tuesday. The statement added, “We promise Allah the almighty, the spirit of our holiest martyr Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, the martyrs, and the fighters of the Islamic Resistance as well as our steadfast, patient and loyal people to work together in a bid to stick to Hezbollah’s principles, achieve the goals of its path and keep the banner of the resistance raised high until the victory.”
Qassem was born in 1953 in Beirut to a family from southern Lebanon. His political activism began with the Amal Movement. He later took part in the meetings that led to the formation of Hezbollah following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
Qassem was appointed as Hezbollah's deputy chief in 1991 by the resistance group’s then-secretary general Abbas al-Musawi. He was killed by a missile strike from Israeli helicopters while driving with his wife and 6-year-old son on a road in the Bekaa region of eastern Lebanon on February 16, 1992.
Israel has assassinated multiple Hezbollah officials in the past decades in a futile attempt to bring the movement to its knees.
Under such illusions, Israel killed Nasrallah in an airstrike in a suburb in southern Beirut on September 27.
US media acknowledged that Israel used American-made 900kg (2,000-pound) bombs in the strike that killed Nasrallah and levelled residential buildings in Beirut’s suburb of Dahieh.
Hezbollah also announced last week that Sayyed Hashem Safieddine, the head of the movement’s Executive Council, was martyred in an Israeli airstrike on Beirut in early October.
Sheikh Naim Qassem, who has served as Hezbollah’s deputy chief since 1991, was among the resistance movement’s founders. The assassination of Nasrallah and Safieddine came against the backdrop of Israel’s massive bombing campaign in Lebanon that started on September 23 this year. It was followed by a ground incursion into southern Lebanon on October 1.
In response, Hezbollah has targeted strategic military positions deep inside Israel with missiles and drones. It has also killed a significant number of the invading regime’s troops inside Israel and in southern Lebanon.
The blows suffered by Israel have demonstrated that the decapitation of Hezbollah’s leadership has failed to weaken the movement.
Hezbollah boosted its military capabilities under Nasrallah’s leadership who replaced al-Musawi following his 1992 assassination.
Israel humiliated
Israel went to war with Hezbollah on July 12, 2006 – days after the Lebanese resistance movement captured two Israeli soldiers.
The conflict ended in mid-August that year after Israel failed to defeat Hezbollah.
In August 2021, an Israeli inquiry acknowledged the regime’s failure to achieve its goal in the 2006 war, describing the conflict as “unsuccessful” and “missed opportunity”.
Israel's strategy of targeting Hezbollah leadership proves ineffective as casualties within the regime's army continue to escalate. “Israel initiated a long war, which ended without its clear military victory,” the inquiry found.
Before his martyrdom, Nasrallah had said on multiple occasions that the 2006 war, known as the July War, was a success for the resistance movement.
Hezbollah has increased its stockpile of missiles from 14,000 in 2006 to about 150,000 and has developed precision-guided missiles and its drone programs.
Nasrallah had said before his martyrdom that the resistance movement has 100,000 fighters.
The assassination of Nasrallah and Safieddine will have major repercussions for Israel, similar to the fallout experienced after the assassination of al-Musawi.
Hezbollah capabilities intact
The new Hezbollah leader has delivered three speeches since Nasrallah’s martyrdom.
He said in a televised address on October 8 that Hezbollah’s capabilities are intact and its fighters are pushing back against the Israeli ground operation.
Israel is now trying to divert attention away from its setbacks in the wake of the assassination of top Hezbollah leaders.
The regime has threatened to kill Qassem “if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine," according to the Israeli cabinet’s official Arabic account on X. It added, "There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force."
Israel has failed to dismantle Hezbollah over the past decades. History has shown that the assassination of the movement’s leaders and Israel’s acts of aggression against Lebanon have backfired on the regime. The recent casualties suffered by the Israeli army at the hands of Hezbollah is just the tip of the iceberg.
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