On Tuesday, Hezbollah's Shura Council, the group's central decision-making body, appointed the 60-year-old cleric to the post.
“Based on faith in Allah Almighty…, adherence to Hezbollah’s principles and goals, and following the established procedure for the election of the Secretary-General, Hezbollah’s Shura Council has elected His Eminence Sheikh Naim Qassem as Secretary-General of Hezbollah, entrusting him with the blessed banner on this journey. We pray to the Almighty to grant him success in this honorable mission of leading Hezbollah and its Islamic resistance,” the council said in a statement.
The statement also pledged to the fallen victims, fighters of the Islamic resistance as well as well the steadfast and loyal Lebanese nation that Hezbollah will stand by its principles, goals and path in order to keep the flame of resistance alive and its banner held high until final victory.
Sheikh Qassem is a veteran figure in Hezbollah, having served as deputy secretary general of the Lebanese resistance group since 1991.
He was appointed deputy secretary general under Hezbollah’s late secretary general, Abbas al-Musawi, who was killed by an Israeli helicopter attack in 1992, and remained in the role when Nasrallah became leader.
His political activism began in the Lebanese Amal Movement, founded in 1974. He left Amal in 1979, in the wake of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, which shaped the political thinking of many young Lebanese activists.
He took part in meetings that led to the formation of Hezbollah in 1982.
Sheikh Qassem has long been one of the leading spokesmen for Hezbollah, conducting many interviews with foreign media.
He was born in 1953 in Beirut’s Basta Tahta district, and his family originally hails from Kfar Fila town in Lebanon’s southern Nabatieh province.