Hashem Safieddine: who is the probable new leader of Hezbollah

The new general secretary of Hezbollah? The succession to power in the terrorist organization is already being discussed, after 32 years of unchallenged leadership by Nasrallah. According to the New York Times Three senior Israeli defense officials would point to his right-hand man as the most likely successor to Hassan Nasrallah, who Hezbollah confirmed died in the bombing of its headquarters south of Beirut: Hashem Safieddine, 59 years oldNasrallah’s shadow man for years, as well as his cousin on his mother’s side.

Like Nasrallah he had studied theology abroad, but in a country with a Shiite majority: Iran, so he had not had to suffer Saddam Hussein’s persecution in Iraq. In Iran he had studied religion in Qom, but Safieddine’s ties with Tehran are also current: not only is his brother Abdallah the representative of Hezbollah in the country, but his son Rida got married in June 2020 with Zainab Soleimani, one of the three daughters of the famous general Qassem Soleimani, commander of the Iranian Quds Force killed in Baghdad in a US attack on 3 January 2020. Since her father’s death – we still remember his silhouette, wrapped in a black chador, thundering against the United States United at her parent’s funeral – she became an increasingly visible public figure and Khamenei entrusted her with the foundation of the Revolutionary Guards.

Safieddine is Hezbollah’s finance chiefand is considered the mastermind behind the diversification of the organization’s investments around the world, a dense network that has thus far ensured the group’s economic sustainability and even its prosperity. His influence and connection to Iran make him more powerful than another candidate for succession, Naim Qassem, current deputy secretary general of Hezbollah and he is also very close to Nasrallah.