The head of the Executive Council of the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollahthe clergyman Hashem Safi al Dinis emerging as one of the main candidates to succeed as general secretary of the political movement and armed group to his maternal cousin, Hasan Nasrallahkilled this Friday in an Israeli bombing on the outskirts of Beirut.
In the midst of the commotion caused by the death of Nasrallah, who was in fact the figure with the greatest political ascendancy in the Lebanon and was found in the sights of the Jewish State for decadesthe world is also awaiting the succession at the head of an organization that now lives, one of its most critical moments under the intense Israeli bombings that have devastated their fiefdoms in Lebanon and have also taken away many of their senior officials.
And at the center of all these glances is Safi al Din, widely considered second in the chain of command of the organization, where he also served as head of the Jihad Council to oversee its military operations.
Cousin and religious
Born in 1964 in the town of Deir Qanun in Nahr, in southern Lebanon, the religious has been well connected since its beginnings with the dome of Hezbollah and rose rapidly within it since his appointment as a member of the formation’s Shura Council, an advisory body, in 1995.
Like the majority of Shiite clerics and senior officials of the organization, until 1994 He carried out his Islamic studies with his cousin Nasrallah in the holy cities of Najaf, in Iraqand Qom, in Iranwhere the main schools are located for anyone who aspires to become a Grand Ayatollah.
Nobody doubts, thus, the influence of Safi al Din, raised in a highly respected family in southern Lebanon and whose brother Abdullah also serves as Hezbollah’s representative and spokesperson in Iran, the main support of the political movement and its armed militia.
In fact, his connection to the Islamic Republic took on a more personal turn after His son Reza will marry Zeinab Soleimani in June 2020the daughter of the powerful commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated in January of that same year by USA in a targeted bombing in Baghdad.
Terrorist and leader
Like most of the senior officials of Hezbollah – an organization considered terrorist by Israel and the United States, but not by the European Unionwhich only considers its armed wing to be terrorists-, In 2017 Safi al Din was designated a terrorist by Washingtonfor being “a key member” of the group, according to a note published at the time by the US State Department.
Safi al Din has served as head of the Shiite group’s Executive Council since 2001, but was also appointed by the organization as military commander in the south of Lebanon in 2010, a key position in leading operations against Israel.
In view of his career, he has been considered a possible successor to Nasrallah since 2006, when Israel and the organization They fought a brief war of about a month. Furthermore, like Nasrallah, he has appeared on rare occasions since the beginning of the border clashes that began with the Jewish State a little less than a year ago.
One of his last public interventions was in mid-September, when he condemned the assassination at the hands of Israel of the top commander of the Hezbollah militiaFuad Shukr, in a selective bombing in the southern neighborhoods of Beirut known as Dahye, the same area where Israel killed Nasrallah.
“The army once considered legendary has failed to achieve its objectives despite continued mass destruction, assassinations, famine and siege,” he said at the time. considering Israel’s military adventures a failure both in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.
