Backed by Iran and hated by Israel, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is Lebanon’s strongest man.
He enjoys cult standing amongst his Shiite supporters, is provided with a formidable arsenal far larger and extra trendy than the nationwide military’s, and holds sway over the nation’s establishments.
Nasrallah has not often been seen in public since his Shiite motion fought a devastating 2006 conflict pitting his fighters in opposition to Israeli troops.
Nobody is aware of the place he lives, and the overwhelming majority of his speeches prior to now 20 years have been televised from a secret location.
The 64-year-old delivered his newest such speech on Thursday, after the communications gadgets of lots of of Hezbollah’s operatives exploded in an unprecedented assault that the group blamed on Israel.
A gifted public speaker, Nasrallah is a grasp of cadence, swinging from humour to belittle his enemies to rage to fireside up his 100,000-man militia.
The bearded, bespectacled cleric is rarely seen with out conventional robes and the black turban that marks him out as a descendant of the prophet Mohammed.
He’s married and has 4 surviving youngsters. His eldest son Hadi was killed throughout a army operation in opposition to Israeli troops in south Lebanon in 1997.
He was elected secretary common of Hezbollah in 1992, aged simply 32, after an Israeli helicopter gunship killed his predecessor Abbas al-Musawi.
Hezbollah is the one group that refused to surrender its weapons after Lebanon’s 15-year civil conflict led to 1990, and Nasrallah insists that Israel stays an existential risk.
Since Hezbollah’s Palestinian ally Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Hezbollah has battled Israeli troops nearly each day alongside the Lebanon-Israel border.
The unprecedented assaults that this week noticed lots of of Hezbollah members’ pagers and walkie-talkies explode throughout Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday have put Nasrallah underneath large stress to reply.
– ‘Divine victory’ –
Born in Beirut’s impoverished northern suburb of Burj Hammud on August 31, 1960, he was considered one of 9 youngsters of a poor grocer hailing from the tiny southern village of Bazuriyeh.
Nasrallah studied each politics and the Koran for 3 years at a seminary within the Iraqi Shiite holy metropolis of Najaf, earlier than being expelled in 1978 when the Sunni-dominated authorities turned on Shiite activists.
He then grew to become closely concerned in Lebanese politics and gained a lot of his early expertise within the Shiite Amal militia throughout the civil conflict.
However he broke away from Amal when Israeli troops marched on Beirut in 1982 to grow to be one of many founders of Hezbollah.
He acquired his cult standing in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world after Israel withdrew its troops from south Lebanon underneath relentless Hezbollah assault in Could 2000, ending 22 years of occupation of the border strip.
Nasrallah’s years on the helm of Hezbollah, or Social gathering of God, have seen the group broaden from guerrilla faction into the nation’s strongest political pressure.
Hezbollah is admired by many Shiites in Lebanon for supporting native charities, increase well being and training providers in its strongholds and aiding the needy amongst its supporters.
Nasrallah’s private reputation soared throughout the Arab world after a UN-brokered ceasefire ended the 2006 battle with Israel, with supporters handing out posters bearing his {photograph} and declaring “divine victory.”
However in divided Lebanon, the motion can also be broadly hated, together with by those that dream of a nation free from sectarianism and the place the rule of regulation prevails.
His status within the Arab world took a significant blow throughout the Arab Spring protests of 2011, when he despatched fighters to neighbouring Syria to prop up President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
