Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Collective Command Will Lead Hezbollah Until End of War

Head of Hezbollah's political council Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed. (Sayyed's website)
Head of Hezbollah's political council Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed. (Sayyed's website)
TT
20

Sources to Asharq Al-Awsat: Collective Command Will Lead Hezbollah Until End of War

Head of Hezbollah's political council Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed. (Sayyed's website)
Head of Hezbollah's political council Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed. (Sayyed's website)

Reports have emerged that Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed, the head of Hezbollah's’ political council, may be named successor to the Iran-backed party’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah who was killed in an Israeli strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs in late September.

Sayyed’s name emerged after the presumed death of Hezbollah executive council leader and potential Nasrallah successor Hashem Safieddine in an Israeli strike on the suburbs on Thursday. Hezbollah has yet to confirm his death.

Informed sources categorically denied that Sayyed was being viewed as a successor.

“No one is currently nominated to succeed Nasrallah,” they said. “The party is now being led collectively.”

In a statement on Saturday, Hezbollah’s media relations office refuted the “false reports and baseless rumors” about the organization of the party, saying such reports were part of a “psychological war against the resistance.”

Hezbollah critic Ali al-Amin ruled out that the party would name a new secretary general given Nasrallah and Safieddine’s fate.

“Any candidate, regardless of who they are, is a candidate for death,” he stressed.

“The party is in a state of confusion and loss and cannot take such a step right now. Naim Qassem is serving as acting secretary general anyway given his role as the party’s deputy leader.”

Who is Sayyed?

Sayyed was born in Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa region in 1955. He pursued intense Shiite religious studies before joining Hezbollah in the first years of its formation in the early 1980s.

He helped develop the party’s political and military movement. He rose up the ranks in the group until he became head of its political council where he is responsible for managing Hezbollah’s general policies and communication and relations between Lebanese and international political forces.

According to Amin, Sayyed served as the Amal movement’s envoy to Iran before the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in the 80s. He then joined Hezbollah and read out the party’s statement that announced its official establishment, meaning he was its official spokesman in February 1985.

Sayyed is close to Lebanese MP Jamil al-Sayyed. He was head of Hezbollah's Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc from 1992 to 1996.

Amin remarked: “The fact that Sayyed is approaching 70 years of age doesn’t make him a suitable candidate for the position of secretary general, especially in these circumstances.”

He therefore dismissed reports that he was a possible candidate, adding that Sayyed had been “effectively marginalized and semi-retired for the past 15 years. The only news we hear about him as of late are his visits to the Maronite Patriarchate.”

“Moreover, he is not seen as a core leading member of the party, whose major leaders have been assassinated” by Israel, he noted.



UN Rapporteur Calls for Global Action to Stop ‘Genocide’ in Gaza

 UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)
TT
20

UN Rapporteur Calls for Global Action to Stop ‘Genocide’ in Gaza

 UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese speaks during a press conference following an Emergency Conference of States, hosted by Colombia and South Africa, to discuss measures against Israel in relation to the conflict in Gaza, in Bogota, Colombia, July 15, 2025. (Reuters)

The United Nations’ special rapporteur for Gaza and the West Bank said Tuesday that it's time for nations around the world to take concrete actions to stop what she called the “genocide” in Gaza.

Francesca Albanese spoke to delegates from 30 countries meeting in Colombia’s capital to discuss the Israel-Hamas war and ways that nations can try to stop Israel’s military offensive in the territory. Many of the participating nations have described the violence as genocide against the Palestinians.

“Each state must immediately review and suspend all ties with the State of Israel ... and ensure its private sector does the same,” Albanese said. “The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal.”

The two-day conference organized by the governments of Colombia and South Africa is being attended mostly by developing nations, although the governments of Spain, Ireland and China have also sent delegates.

Israel, which was founded in the aftermath of the Holocaust, has adamantly rejected genocide allegations against it as an antisemitic “blood libel.”

Analysts say it’s not clear whether the conference's participating countries have enough leverage over Israel to force it to change its policies in Gaza, where more than 58,000 people have been killed in Israeli military operations following a deadly Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. The death toll comes from the health ministry, which is under Gaza’s Hamas government and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants. The UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.

“The United States has so far failed to influence Israel’s behavior ... so it is naive to think that this group of countries can have any influence over (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu’s behavior or on the government of Israel,” said Sandra Borda, a professor of international relations at Bogota’s Los Andes University.

She said, however, that the conference will enable some nations of the Global South to clarify their position toward the conflict and have their voices heard.

The conference is co-chaired by the governments of South Africa and Colombia, which last year suspended coal exports to Israeli power plants, and includes the participation of members of The Hague Group, a coalition of eight nations that earlier this year pledged to cut military ties with Israel and to comply with an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against Netanyahu.

For decades, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress party has compared Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank with its own history of oppression under the harsh apartheid regime of white minority rule, which restricted most Blacks to “homelands” before ending in 1994.

South Africa’s current argument is rooted in the sentiment that Palestinians have been oppressed in their homeland as Black South Africans were under apartheid.

The gathering comes as the European Union weighs various measures against Israel that include a ban on imports from Israeli settlements, an arms embargo and individual sanctions against Israeli officials, who are found to be blocking a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Colombia’s Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs Mauricio Jaramillo said Monday that the nations participating in the Bogota meeting, which also include Qatar and Türkiye, will be discussing diplomatic and judicial measures that can be taken to put more pressure on Israel to cease its attacks.

The Colombian official described Israel’s conduct in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank as an affront to the international order.

“This is not just about Palestine” Jaramillo said in a press conference. “It is about defending international law... and the right to self-determination.”