BEIRUT: Lebanese armed group Hezbollah said on Tuesday it had elected deputy head Naim Qassem to succeed Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburb over a month ago.
The group said in a written statement that its Shoura Council had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general.
He was appointed as Hezbollah’s deputy chief in 1991 by the armed group’s then-secretary general Abbas Al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack the following year.
Qassem remained in his role when Nasrallah became leader, and has long been one of Hezbollah’s leading spokesmen, conducting interviews with foreign media, including as cross-border hostilities with Israel raged over the last year.
Nasrallah was killed on Sept. 27, 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 given three televised addresses, including one on Oct. 8 in which he said the armed group supported efforts to reach a ceasefire for Lebanon.
He is considered by many in Lebanon to lack the charisma and gravitas of Nasrallah.
The Israeli government’s official Arabic account on X posted, “His tenure in this position may be the shortest in the history of this terrorist organization if he follows in the footsteps of his predecessors Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine.”
“There is no solution in Lebanon except to dismantle this organization as a military force,” it wrote.
Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah
https://arab.news/z95kx
Hezbollah elects Naim Qassem to succeed slain head Nasrallah
- Shoura Council says had elected Qassem, 71, in accordance with its established mechanism for choosing a secretary general
- Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air attack on Beirut’s southern suburb over a month ago
Seven dead, 11 hurt in southern Turkiye bus crash
- Seven people died and 11 others were hurt early Saturday when an intercity bus crashed into a lorry on a motorway in southern Turkiye, the local governor’s office said
ISTANBUL: Seven people died and 11 others were hurt early Saturday when an intercity bus crashed into a lorry on a motorway in southern Turkiye, the local governor’s office said.
The incident, which happened before dawn on the highway linking the cities of Adana and Gaziantep, happened when a coach plowed into an articulated lorry that had stopped after one of its tires blew out, state news agency Anadolu said.
Footage from the scene showed the front right section of the bus was totally mangled where it hit the back of the lorry about 90 kilometers (55 miles) west of Gaziantep.
Quoting the Osmaniye governor’s office, Anadolu said all of the dead and injured were on board the bus with efforts ongoing to to identify the victims.
The lorry driver, who survived the crash, was detained with police closing down the road, it said.
