Following the assassination of Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah in a violent airstrike on Beirut’s southern suburbs, the name of Hashem Safieddine immediately emerged as a potential successor. Although Hezbollah has yet to officially announce Nasrallah’s successor, Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem, in his first appearance after the assassination, did not specify a clear date or name for the position. However, he did say that the matter would be announced in due time. Despite this, Safieddine remains the most prominent candidate for succession.

Who Is Hashem Safieddine?

Safieddine is Nasrallah’s cousin and bears a striking resemblance to him. Both traveled together to Najaf, Iraq, to study religious sciences at the seminary there. They later left Najaf for Iran after former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a campaign of extermination against Shiite religious figures and families in Najaf and Karbala. The two continued their religious studies in Qom, Iran.

Safieddine remained in Qom for several years until Nasrallah called him back to Lebanon to join Hezbollah.

Safieddine steadily rose through the ranks within Hezbollah’s organizational structure. He currently serves as the head of Hezbollah’s Executive Council, is one of the nine members of the Shura Council, and the military commander of Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. More importantly, he is also a member of the Jihad Council.

The Jihad Council consists of founding military figures of Hezbollah, forming the small core that shaped Hezbollah in the early 1980s. Despite its name, which suggests it is solely a military wing, the Jihad Council also oversees organizational responsibilities, such as supervision, coordination, and regulating relationships between Hezbollah’s various councils and institutions, including its religious, social, and service branches. The Council’s leaders are also responsible for organizing Hezbollah’s civilian institutions, especially those linked to “jihad,” such as the Martyrs Foundation, the Wounded Foundation, student mobilization, and Jihad al-Binaa.

Safieddine is one of the most active members of the Jihad Council in both political and civil matters, unlike other members whose roles are limited to military activities, such as Fouad Shukr, Ibrahim Aqil, and Wissam al-Toufiq, all of whom were assassinated by Israel during the “Supporting War,” along with others.

Beyond his political and military roles, Safieddine is also a social figure. He heads several non-profit civil associations that provide services to those in need, notably the Al Safieddine Association in Lebanon, which plays a significant social and welfare role in Beirut’s southern suburbs and southern Lebanon.

Born in 1964 in the village of Deir Qanoun al-Nahr in the Tyre district of southern Lebanon, Safieddine is married to Raeda Faqih, the daughter of the late Shia scholar Yusuf Faqih, who died early in a car accident in Abidjan.

In 2020, his eldest son, Reza Safieddine, married Zainab Soleimani, the youngest daughter of Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who was assassinated by a U.S. drone strike near Baghdad Airport shortly after arriving from a secret visit to Beirut. Zainab received Lebanese citizenship through an exceptional decree from then-President Michel Aoun. She speaks fluent Arabic and converses in the Lebanese dialect, while Reza holds a senior leadership position in the IRGC, appearing more Iranian than Lebanese.

When Hashem Safieddine moved to Iran, his brother Abdullah Safieddine joined him and has remained there ever since, allowing him to establish deep and lasting relationships with the early leaders of the Iranian regime. Abdullah now acts as Hezbollah’s unofficial permanent envoy to Tehran. This connection further bolsters Hashem Safieddine’s candidacy for Nasrallah’s succession, aside from his natural organizational ascent within Hezbollah. Additionally, his son Reza’s marriage to Zainab Soleimani further consolidated his position as the likely successor. Some even believe that this family connection sealed the matter before Nasrallah’s assassination, allowing Safieddine to bypass internal organizational protocols and remove Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem’s name from consideration.

This is the third time Hashem Safieddine’s name has been publicly floated as Nasrallah’s potential successor. The first time was in the mid-1990s after his permanent return from Iran, and the second was during the COVID-19 pandemic when Nasrallah contracted the virus, sparking rumors of his possible death.

Following Hezbollah’s announcement of Nasrallah’s assassination, preparations are underway for a second announcement that will officially name his successor. Hezbollah typically does not take lightly the matter of appointing a new Secretary-General and has undergone several leadership transitions in its history. The first was after the rebellion of its first Secretary-General Sheikh Subhi al-Tufayli, who led the “Hunger Revolution” in the Bekaa Valley in protest against the dominance of southern Lebanese figures in Hezbollah’s leadership and the marginalization of issues affecting the Bekaa. Despite the Bekaa being the birthplace of Hezbollah’s first training camps under Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tufayli was removed, and Abbas al-Moussawi was appointed in his place without any major hurdles. The smooth transition was aided by keeping the leadership within the Bekaa region.

In 1992, al-Moussawi was assassinated in an Israeli airstrike that targeted his convoy on the road to the village of Tfehta in southern Lebanon. He was returning from a central Hezbollah rally in Jibchit commemorating the assassination of Sheikh Ragheb Harb, one of the leaders of the “comprehensive civil resistance” against Israel that Sheikh Mahdi Shamseddine launched in southern Lebanon during Israel’s invasion of the land.

After al-Moussawi’s assassination, the leadership again transitioned smoothly to Nasrallah, despite rumors that the Iranian backers disagreed on the most suitable candidate for leadership and that the time had come to entrust the position to a civilian figure. At the time, former Minister Mohammad Fneish’s name was floated as a candidate, but the religious hardline faction, backed by the IRGC, ultimately secured the appointment of Nasrallah.

The apex of Hezbollah’s leadership has consistently consisted of three figures: former Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Sheikh Naim Qassem, one of the founders of the Muslim Student Union in Lebanon and former Deputy Secretary-General, and Hashem Safieddine, head of the Executive Council and overseer of the party’s cultural, social, and educational activities (including student mobilization).

The United States has designated Safieddine as a terrorist figure, accusing him of involvement in drug trafficking in coordination with factions of the IRGC, as well as overseeing the smuggling of weapons and explosives.