Who is Hezbollah leader Hashem Safieddine, targetted by Israel airstrikes? – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Israeli warplanes conducted a series of intense airstrikes on Wednesday night targeting Hashem Safieddine, cousin and possible successor of the recently assassinated Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah.
The bombardment was one of the most severe in the region since Israel killed Nasrallah, but it remains unclear whether Safieddine, who was believed to be attending a meeting with senior Hezbollah officials, was killed in the strikes.This attempted assassination is the latest effort by Israel to systematically eliminate Hezbollah’s leadership, following their invasion of southern Lebanon earlier in the week.
Who is Hashem Safieddine?
Hashem Safieddine, born in southern Lebanon in the early 1960s, is one of Hezbollah’s founding members. He joined the Shiite Muslim group in the 1980s during Lebanon’s civil war and quickly rose through the ranks alongside Nasrallah.
Safieddine held various positions, including political, spiritual, and cultural leadership roles as well as overseeing the group’s military activities at one point. Like Nasrallah, Safieddine often wore a black turban, signifying his status as a revered Shiite cleric.
In 1995, he was promoted to the group’s highest council and soon after he was appointed the head of the military operations of Hezbollah. In 1998, Safieddine was elected to lead the party’s executive council, a position previously held by Nasrallah before his appointment as Hezbollah’s secretary-general in 1992.
Like Nasrallah, Safieddine studied in Iran, forming strong ties with Tehran during his religious studies in Qom before returning to Lebanon to work for Hezbollah.
Safieddine’s son Reza Hashem Safieddine married Zeinab Suleimani, daughter of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, an Iranian commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, who was killed by a US airstrike in Baghdad in 2020. The wedding was highly publicized and was largely viewed as a symbol of Iran’s deep involvement in Hezbollah.
In May 2017, the United States and Saudi Arabia designated Safieddine as a terrorist due to his leadership role in Hezbollah. US has classified Hezbollah as a terrorist organization since 1997, holding the group accountable for numerous attacks that claimed the lives of hundreds of Americans, including the 1983 suicide truck bombings of the US embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut, the 1984 US embassy annex bombing in Beirut, and the 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847.