The fate of a possible successor to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is unclear following an Israeli airstrike on Beirut. <\/p>\n
Safieddine is a maternal cousin of Nasrallah \u2013 the two studied in Iran together in the early 1980s. Just like Nasrallah, Safieddine is a staunch critic of Israel and the West, with deep alliances with the Iranian leadership. <\/p>\n
Safieddine served as head of Hezbollah\u2019s executive council and, until his predecessor\u2019s death, was seen as one of the most likely heirs to the organization\u2019s highest-ranking seat. The group has yet to name a successor to Nasrallah. <\/p>\n
The executive council is one of five bodies that make up the Shura Council, which is the organization\u2019s decision-making body. The executive council oversees political matters, as opposed to the Jihad Council which is the group\u2019s military body, which Safieddine is a member of. <\/p>\n
Safieddine has previously spoken of the \u201cstrong relationship\u201d between Hezbollah and Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and especially Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in US airstrike at Baghdad airport in 2020. Safieddine\u2019s son is married to Soleimani\u2019s daughter. <\/p>\n
The Shiite cleric was born in 1964 in the southern Lebanese village of Deir Qanoun En Nahr. Like the late Hezbollah leader, he wears the black turban signaling that he is a \u201cSayyid,\u201d a Shiite honorific title denoting descent from Prophet Mohammed. <\/p>\n
The 60-year-old cleric has had a visible presence across Hezbollah\u2019s political stage, especially over the past year. Throughout the Gaza war, Safieddine would make statements denouncing Israel\u2019s actions in the enclave and on his country\u2019s southern border. <\/p>\n
Nasrallah \u201cstarted tailoring positions for him within a variety of different councils within Lebanese Hezbollah. Some of them were more opaque than others. They\u2019ve had him come, go out and speak,\u201d Phillip Smyth, an expert who studies Iran-backed Shiite militias, told Reuters. <\/p>\n
Speaking at the funeral ceremony of one of the slain Hezbollah members in May, Safieddine boasted that his group is nonetheless strong and resilient, prioritizing \u2013 along with their Iranian allies \u2013 the Palestinian cause and the need to liberate the Palestinian people. <\/p>\n
Following the back-to-back explosions that targeted Hezbollah pagers and walkie-talkies, Safieddine said that his organization \u201cwill not back down until the end.\u201d <\/p>\n
Saffiedine has long been a hawkish critic of US policy, which he sees as aiding and abetting Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza and southern Lebanon. <\/p>\n
In 2021, he accused Washington of \u201cinterfering\u201d in Lebanese domestic politics, saying that \u201cAmerican tyranny\u201d is \u201csabotaging\u201d the region\u2019s nations, citing Iraq and Afghanistan among examples. <\/p>\n
The United States designated Hezbollah a foreign terrorist organization in 1997, and in 2017 designated Safieddine a foreign terrorist. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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