With the appearance of unconfirmed reports that the secretary General of the Lebanese Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, was killed in an Israeli raid on Beirut on Friday, after 32 years at the head of his group, there are even more questions about his future successor.
Despite the secrecy and ambiguity associated with the selection process of leaders in organizations like Hezbollah, there are still certain forecasts.
The list of possible candidates is headed by Hashim Safi ad-Din, Nasrallah's cousin and son-in-law of Qassem Soleimani, former commander of the Quds Force in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
Everyone notes that Safi ad-Din looks like his cousin and has been preparing to become his successor since 1994. He came from the Iranian city of Qom to Beirut to head the Executive Council, which is considered the government of the party. His work was led by the former head of the party's security service, Imad Mughniyeh.
Safi ad-Din was primarily Nasrallah's "shadow" and the second man in the party. For three decades, this man has been in charge of all important daily affairs, from the institutions of the party to the management of its funds and investments at home and abroad, leaving strategic affairs in the hands of Nasrallah. Safi ad-Din has been on the US terrorist list since 2017.
He also has excellent relations with Tehran, he spent years in the spiritual capital of Iran — Qom, where he studied, until Nasrallah summoned him to Beirut to take responsibility in the party.
Safi al-Din's name was put forward by the Iranians as Nasrallah's successor 16 years ago. But insiders behind the scenes of the party say that the decision was made much earlier.
There is not much information about the successor, this man remained virtually unknown in Lebanese political circles for a long time until he began to appear instead of Nasrallah at party events, especially at the funerals of its members and leaders.
The scant information available about him suggests that Safi ad-Din was born in 1964 in the city of Deir Qanun Nahr in the Tyre region of southern Lebanon and came from a family with a "strong social status."
In addition to the day-to-day affairs of the party, the Executive Council, headed by Safi ad-Din, also manages a huge investment package aimed at ensuring the financial independence of the organization and financing its huge apparatus, which is not subject to financing from "legitimate funds" allocated mainly for military operations.