Hezbollah appoints Naim Qassem as new chief

BEIRUT, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) — Hezbollah announced on Tuesday the election of Naim Qassem as party secretary-general, succeeding Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli raid on the party’s headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburb on Sept. 27.
“Hezbollah’s Shura Council agreed to elect His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem as Hezbollah’s secretary-general,” said Hezbollah in a statement.
The statement pledged “to work together to achieve Hezbollah’s principles and goals and to keep the flame of resistance shining and its banner raised until victory is achieved.”
Qassem has been Hezbollah’s deputy secretary-general since 1991 and is considered one of the party’s prominent theorists.
Qassem, 71, was born in 1953 and is from the village of Kafr Fila in the Iqlim al-Tuffah region of southern Lebanon. He is married and has six children.
He studied under senior Shiite scholars in Lebanon while pursuing a master’s and bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Lebanese University and worked as a chemistry teacher for several years in secondary schools.
Qassem began his political career in the 1970s as he joined the Amal movement, a Lebanese political party and former militia affiliated with the Shia community of Lebanon. He was one of the secretaries of the movement’s leadership council and resigned from it after the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979.
He participated in the founding meetings that led to the formation of Hezbollah in 1982 and served on the group’s Shura Council for three terms, where he was responsible for the educational and scouting programs within the group in Beirut.
Qassem was appointed as the Deputy Secretary-General of Hezbollah when Sayyed Abbas al-Moussawi assumed the position of General Secretary in 1991 and remained in the position after Israel assassinated al-Moussawi, who was succeeded by Nasrallah in 1992.
Qassem has been the general coordinator of Hezbollah’s parliamentary election campaigns since the group first participated in 1992.
He has authored many books, the most prominent of which was in 2005 the book “Hezbollah,” which presents the party’s goals, history, and political vision in various matters. ■