TEHRAN - As the chairman of Hezbollah’s 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.

Safieddine’s 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. 

Safieddine assumed a prominent role, speaking for Hezbollah. He addressed funerals and other events that Nasrallah had long avoided for security reasons.

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.

Like Nasrallah, Safieddine wore the black turban denoting his status as a sayyed, or descendent of the Prophet Muhammed (peace be upon him).

Hailing from a prominent Lebanese Shia family, he was born in 1964 in Lebanon’s predominantly Shia south.

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.

His son, Rida, is married to the daughter of Iranian Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the legendary commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force who was assassinated in a US drone strike near Baghdad’s international airport in January 2020.

His brother, Abdullah, serves as Hezbollah’s representative in Tehran.

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.

He led efforts to rebuild the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut after Israel’s 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 “a new victory” over Israel.

In 2017, in response to US pressure on Hezbollah, he said, “This mentally impeded, crazy US administration headed by Trump will not be able to harm the resistance”.