The diminishing pool of potential contenders for the top job shrank further on Sunday after the IDF said it had killed Nabil Kaouk, the deputy head of Hezbollah’s executive council.
Kaouk, one of the group’s most public faces, was seen by some analysts as a potential successor.
An experienced strategist who led Hezbollah’s battlefield operations in its 2006 war with Israel, Kaouk used an interview with The Telegraph two years later to denounce British support for Israel, saying it had “left a scar on our people”.
The most likely new leader, however, has always been Hashem Safieddine, Nasrallah’s cousin and the head of Hezbollah’s executive council. He is seen as a more capable, dynamic choice than the man likely to be his chief rival, Naim Qassem, the movement’s second-in-command.
A fellow cleric with a resemblance to Nasrallah and who also wears the black turban signifying descent from the Prophet Mohammad, Safieddine, believed to be about 60, oversees the group’s political affairs.
Since his son is married to the daughter of Qassim Soleimani, the top Iranian general whose assassination Donald Trump ordered in a drone strike in 2020, he also has close personal ties to Iran, which will be taking a direct role in shaping the succession plans.