Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, named Naim Qassem, its longtime deputy leader, as its new secretary general on Tuesday, replacing Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated in Israeli airstrikes south of Beirut last month.
The naming of Mr. Qassem, who is around 70 years old, came amid Hezbollah’s deadliest war with Israel since the group was founded in the 1980s. In recent months, Israel has killed large numbers of Hezbollah leaders and commanders, including both Mr. Nasrallah and his presumed successor, Hashem Safieddine, as well as many of the group’s rank-and-file fighters.
Mr. Qassem has been Hezbollah’s primary voice since the killing of Mr. Nasrallah, appearing in video addresses from undisclosed locations. While he has hinted that Hezbollah is open to diplomacy aimed at ending the war, he has indicated no broader shift in the group’s direction, pledging that its fighters were ready to battle the Israeli troops invading southern Lebanon.
“We will confront any possibility, and we are ready if the Israelis decide to enter by land,” he said last month. “The forces of the resistance are ready for a ground engagement.”
Mr. Qassem was born in 1953 in Beirut and has been involved with Hezbollah since its formation, with Iran’s support, in the early 1980s. In 1991, under a previous secretary general, Abbas al-Musawi, Mr. Qassem was appointed the group’s deputy leader.
After Israel killed Mr. al-Musawi in 1992, Mr. Nasrallah was elevated to the top position and Mr. Qassem remained the deputy.
In 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mr. Qassem because of his role in Hezbollah, which the United States designates as a terrorist organization.
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