Hezbollah names Naim Qassem as its leader

Deputy head Naim Qassem has been named the leader of Hezbollah.

Lebanon's Hezbollah movement announced this on Tuesday.

Naim Qassem will succeed Hasan Nasrallah after his death in an Israeli strike on south Beirut last month.
“Hezbollah's (governing) Shura Council agreed to elect... Sheikh Naim Qassem as secretary general of Hezbollah,” the Iran-backed group said in a statement, more than a month after Nasrallah's killing.

Hashem Safieddine, the head of Hezbollah's executive council, was initially tipped to succeed Nasrallah.
Qassem, 71, was one of Hezbollah's founders in 1982 and has been the party's deputy secretary general since 1991, the year before Nasrallah took the helm.