DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)
Hezbollah’s leadership has chosen a potential successor to head the Islamist resistance group should its chief Hassan Nasrallah be assassinated, an Iranian newspaper reported Monday.
Nasrallah's cousin Hashim Safei al-Deen was chosen to succeed him as secretary general in a move meant to send Israel the message that even the assassination of its leader will not affect the group’s morale or undermine its resistance, according to a report published Monday in the Iranian newspaper Khorshid.
Former Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi was assasinated in 1992 Former Hezbollah leader Abbas al-Musawi was assassinated in an Israeli helicopter attack in 1992.
The Iranian newspaper that published the story, which in turn was circulated on several websites, is not a very prominent one but is affiliated with the governmental body Tamine Ejtema'e (the Social Insurance Organization of Iran).
AlArabiya.net could not independently verify the story.
Wafaa Hateet, assistant to the Hezbollah’s spokesperson Dr. Hussein Rahal, asked AlArabiya.net for an official interview request fax since she was not authorized to discuss the issue. She notedthat she found it unlikely that Hezbollah would comment on the story.
Hezbollah MP Mohamed Raad was unavailable and did not return the call. |
Israel flattened the Hezbollah-stronghold of Dahiya in 2006 (Courtney C. Radsch) The decision to appoint a successor to head the group's Executive Council came in the wake of comments by an Israeli security official that Israel would use “disproportionate” force in a future war against Lebanon.
The Israeli Defense Forces northern command chief told the daily Yedioth Ahronoth earlier this month that the Israeli army would strike Lebanese villages from which rockets are launched with “disproportionate” force, threatening to destroy them as Israeli forces did the Beirut suburb of Dahiya during the July 2006 war.
"From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases," General Gadi Eisenkot was quoted as saying.
"Hezbollah is building capabilities against us that contravene the agreement signed by the Lebanese government at the end of the war,” said Eisenkot, rejecting accusations that Israel contravened the U.N. agreement by flying reconnaissance through Lebanese airspace. “Therefore there is legitimacy to continue the flights over southern Lebanon and over Lebanon in general."
The 34-day war killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and 159 Israelis, primarily soldiers.
(Translated from Arabic by Sonia Farid) |
