Hezbollah appoints Naim Qassem as new leader, Israel says he won’t last long

BEIRUT: Lebanese armed group Hezbollah on Tuesday (October 29) appointed Naim Qassem as its new leader, but Israel said his term would be “temporary”, an apparent threat after it assassinated his predecessor Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, over 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 remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah’s main spokesmen. He conducted 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.