Who Is Hashem Safieddine, The Senior Hezbollah Leader? – Analysis
By Frud Bezhan
(RFE/RL) -- Hashem Safieddine is a cousin and potential successor to Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader assassinated by Israel.
Safieddine, a senior figure inside Hezbollah, the armed group and political party that controls much of southern Lebanon, was reportedly targeted by Israeli air strikes in the Lebanese capital, Beirut, late on October 3. It was not clear if he had been killed.
A Shi’ite cleric with close ties to Iran, Safieddine joined Hezbollah soon after the group was formed in the 1980s.
Safieddine is widely tipped to succeed Nasrallah, the charismatic and longtime leader of the organization who was killed in Israeli air strikes in Beirut on September 27.
Safieddine heads Hezbollah’s executive branch, which oversees the group's political affairs. He is also a member of the decision-making Shura Council as well as the Jihad Council, which runs the group's military operations.
The United States designated Safieddine a terrorist in 2017. Hezbollah is considered a terrorist organization by Washington, although the European Union has only blacklisted its armed wing.
The bearded and bespectacled Safieddine wears a black turban, like Nasrallah, which denotes descent from Prophet Muhammad.
"As Nasrallah's cousin and longtime presumed successor, he would likely be able to unify Hezbollah ranks around him," said Matthew Levitt of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
"But he lacks Nasrallah's charisma, and he inherits an organization that is a shadow of its former self," added Levitt, the author of Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God.
Israel's killing of Nasrallah was the biggest blow to Hezbollah in its 42-year history. The Shi'ite organization has suffered major setbacks in recent months. Israel has assassinated many members of Hezbollah's leadership, neutralized a significant part of its military arsenal, and disrupted its communications.
In his over 30 years in charge of Hezbollah, Nasrallah forged a close relationship with Shi'a-majority Iran, Hezbollah's key backer. With significant financial and political assistance from Tehran, Nasrallah built Hezbollah into a powerful political and military entity in Lebanon and a major player in the region.
Safieddine, born in southern Lebanon, also has close ties to the Islamic republic. He studied in the holy Shi'ite city of Qom, in central Iran. Safieddine's brother, meanwhile, is Hezbollah's representative to Iran.
Safieddine's son is married to the daughter of Qassem Soleimani, the top Iranian commander who was assassinated in a U.S. air strike in Iraq in 2020.