Hashem Safieddine to succeed Hassan Nasrallah as Hezbollah head

Hashem Safieddine will take over as the chief of Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah after Hassan Nasrallah was eliminated by Israel in its airstrikes on Beirut. 

Safieddine is a cousin of Nasrallah, who served as the chief of the group for 32 years.

Reports surfacing on Saturday claimed that Safieddine had also been killed in Israel's bombardment, however Reuters later quoted a source in the outfit saying that he was alive.

Safieddine bears physical resemblance to Nasrallah and joined the group along with his cousin in its early days. Born in 1964 in Deir Qanun al-Nahr in southern Lebanon, Safieddine has been designated as Nasrallah's successor since the 1990s when he was called back to Beirut from Iran, where he was pursuing his studies.

Safieddine was designated a terrorist by the United States in 2017. He has been in charge of Hezbollah's political affairs and is a member of the group's Jihad Council. He also has ties to Iran's regime as the father-in-law of Zeinab Soleimani, the daughter of slain Iranian military general Qassem Soleimani. He was blacklisted by Saudi Arabia in the same year for supporting the Syrian regime.

Meanwhile, people in Syria celebrated after the news of Nasrallah's death surfaced. 

Hezbollah is seen as an enemy by the people as the militant group has helped President Bashar al-Assad suppress the Syrian revolution.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed that he gave the order to eliminate Nasrallah, adding that his death became an "essential condition" for Israel to achieve its war goals. He also called Nasrallah's death as a "historical turning point".

"Hassan Nasrallah will no longer be able to terrorize the world," Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said.

Notably, the IDF has claimed to have eliminated another top Hezbollah leader. The IDF said that Hassan Khalil Yassin, who headed a unit in Hezbollah’s intelligence division that was tasked with locating Israeli military and civilian sites in Israel to be targeted, was also eliminated.