Profile | Hasan Nasrallah, Israel’s old acquaintance who turned Hezbollah into the best armed militia in the world
Hasan Nasrallah has led Hezbollah through decades of conflict with Israel, overseeing its transformation into the world’s best-armed militia and becoming one of the most prominent Iranian-backed Arab figures in generations. Israeli media have reported that Nasrallah was the target of this Friday’s attack on Beirut, the latest in a series of military interventions that have intensified in the last week and have severely hit the group led by Nasrallah for 32 years.
A source close to Hezbollah has told Reuters that Nasrallah has survived the attack, although the Shiite militia has made no official comment. Nasrallah has been praised within the group for standing up to Israel and defying the United States. To his enemies, he is the head of a terrorist organization and a representative of Iran’s Shiite Islamist theocracy in its fight for influence in the Middle East.
Its regional influence has been evident during nearly a year of conflict sparked by the Gaza war, when Hezbollah entered the fray by firing on Israel from southern Lebanon in support of its Palestinian ally Hamas, and Yemeni and Iraqi groups followed suit. , operating under the umbrella of the so-called Axis of Resistance. “We are facing a great battle,” Nasrallah said in an Aug. 1 speech at the funeral of Hezbollah’s top military commander, Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli attack on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut.
However, when thousands of Hezbollah members were injured and dozens killed by the explosion of numerous search engines and walkie talkiesinvolvement in the Gaza war began to turn against Hezbollah. Nasrallah vowed to punish Israel. “This is a reckoning that will come, its nature, its size, when and where is what we will keep secret and in the narrowest circle, even within ourselves,” he warned. Since then he has not given a live speech. Israel, meanwhile, has dramatically escalated its attacks, killing several senior Hezbollah commanders in targeted strikes and unleashing a massive bombardment on Hezbollah-controlled areas in Lebanon that has killed hundreds of people.
Recognized even by his enemies as a charismatic speaker, Nasrallah’s speeches are followed by friends and enemies alike. With the black turban of sayyedor descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Nasrallah uses his oratory to unite Hezbollah’s base, but also to make carefully calibrated threats, often wagging his finger as he makes them. He became secretary general of Hezbollah in 1992, aged just 35, the public face of a once-obscure group founded by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in 1982 to fight Israeli occupation forces. Israel had killed his predecessor, Sayyed Abbas al-Musawi, in a helicopter attack. Nasrallah led Hezbollah when its guerrillas finally drove Israeli forces out of southern Lebanon in 2000, ending an 18-year occupation. (Reuters)
