Man in the News – Who is Naim Qassem, Deputy Secretary General of Hezbollah?

reuters_tickers

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Deputy Secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Naeem Qassem, said on Tuesday that the group supports efforts to reach a cease-fire​​​​ in Lebanon.

Qassem, a senior figure in the Iran-backed group for more than 30 years, said from an undisclosed location, “We are the people of the field and it’s war whoever shouts first.” We will not scream first,” indicating that the group’s capabilities are fine despite the “painful strikes” that Israel has led.

He said in a 30-minute televised speech that Hezbollah supports the efforts of Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is an ally of the group, to reach a ceasefire, but he did not say for the first time that he would reach a truce in Gaza. it is a precondition for the shooting of Israel to stop.

The speech comes a few days after Hezbollah leader Hashem Safi al-Din was targeted in an Israeli attack and 11 days after the assassination of the group’s Secretary-General, Hassan Nasrallah.

Qassem was appointed deputy secretary-general in 1991 under former Hezbollah Secretary-General Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed in an Israeli helicopter attack in 1992, and remained in the post when Nasrallah assumed leadership of the group.

Qassem has long been one of Hezbollah’s main spokesmen and has given interviews to foreign media as cross-border hostilities with Israel have escalated over the past year.

Qassem’s speech on Tuesday was his second since the escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah in September.

Qassem is the first member of Hezbollah’s senior leadership to make televised statements after Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli airstrike on the southern outskirts of Beirut on September 27.

Qassem said on September 30 that Hezbollah would choose a successor to Nasrallah “as soon as possible” and that it would continue its war with Israel in solidarity with the Palestinians.

He said in a speech that lasted 19 minutes at the time, “What we are doing is the minimum as part of the continuation plan of the battle… We know that the battle could be long, and the options are open to us, and we will face any eventuality.”

Qassem was born in 1953 in Beirut to a family from southern Lebanon. Lebanese Shiite activists. He participated in the meetings that led to the creation of Hezbollah, which was formed with the support of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in response to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982.

Qassem has been working as the general coordinator of Hezbollah’s campaigns in the parliamentary elections since the organization first ran in 1992.

In 2005, Qasim prepared a book in which he narrated the history of Hezbollah, and this book was described as “a (rare) view from inside the group.”

Qasim wears a white turban in contrast to Nasrallah and Safi al-Din, whose black turbans symbolize that they are descendants of the Prophet Muhammad.