Biography: Sayed Hassan Nasrallah
Sayed Hassan Nasrallah is the secretary-general of Hezbollah (Party of God), the Lebanese political party and Shia Muslim community’s dominant political bloc.
Hezbollah is widely credited with |
In 1992, the Israeli military assassinated al-Musawi along with his wife and three children.
Nasrallah, at the request of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, took over the movement’s leadership.
Under Nasrallah’s leadership, Hezbollah became a serious opponent of the Israeli forces in southern Lebanon.
His standing in the country was strengthened after his son was killed by Israeli forces in 1996.
Israeli withdrawal
Hezbollah attacks on the Israeli armed forces were an important factor in Israel’s decision to withdraw from south Lebanon in 2000.
The achievement has greatly bolstered the party’s national political standing.
“I don’t believe in the state of Israel as a legal state because it was founded on occupation” |
After the Israeli withdrawal, Nasrallah was at the helm of a complex exchange of prisoners with Israel, resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Hezbollah members being freed and bodies of fighters returned to Lebanon.
Hezbollah’s position, along with that of Syria and the Lebanese government, is that the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon is not complete, with Lebanon claiming sovereignty over the Shebaa Farms.
The UN says the border area is an Israeli-occupied Syrian land unless Beirut and Damascus amend their border.
‘Continued resistance’
Nasrallah continues to call for the “continued resistance” against Israeli occupation of Lebanon.
He is also a strong opponent of the state of Israel.
“I don’t believe in the state of Israel as a legal state because it was founded on occupation,” he said in an interview in 2000.
Nasrallah, who lives in south Beirut, is married and has three children.
The Hezbollah chief is said to enjoy reading the memoirs of political figures. He has read Ariel Sharon’s autobiography, as well as Binyamin Netanyahu’s A Place Under the Sun.