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TEHRAN – As the chairman of Hezbollah\u2019s Executive Council, Sayyed Hashem Safieddine was a very high-ranking member of the organization. He was a cousin of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary-general of the resistance movement.<\/p>\n
Safieddine\u2019s name only came to light after many believed that he would possibly succeed Nasrallah, who was assassinated on September 27 in a massive Israeli air strike on southern Beirut.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Safieddine assumed a prominent role, speaking for Hezbollah. He addressed funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long avoided for security reasons.<\/p>\n
He was the first Hezbollah official to speak in public after the attack on southern Israel in October 2023 by Palestinian resistance factions, including Hamas.<\/p>\n
Like Nasrallah, Safieddine wore the black turban denoting his status as a sayyed, or descendent of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him).<\/p>\n
Hailing from a prominent Lebanese Shia family, he was born in 1964 in Lebanon\u2019s predominantly Shia south.<\/p>\n
Safieddine studied at religious seminaries in the Iranian shrine city of Qom before returning to Lebanon in the 1990s to assume leadership responsibilities in the group.<\/p>\n
His son, Rida, is married to the daughter of Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the legendary commander of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards\u2019 Quds Force who was assassinated in a US drone strike near Baghdad\u2019s international airport in January 2020.<\/p>\n
His brother, Abdullah, serves as Hezbollah\u2019s representative in Tehran.<\/p>\n
As executive council chief, Safieddine played a role some likened to that of prime minister of a government, responsible for an array of Hezbollah institutions involved in health care, education, culture and construction, along with other activities.<\/p>\n
He led efforts to rebuild the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut after Israel\u2019s 2006 war on the group, when swathes of the area were flattened by Israeli air strikes. In a 2012 speech, Safieddine said the post-war reconstruction had amounted to \u201ca new victory\u201d over Israel.<\/p>\n
In 2017, in response to US pressure on Hezbollah, he said, \u201cThis mentally impeded, crazy US administration headed by Trump will not be able to harm the resistance\u201d.
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