Amin al-Sayyed: Cleric and Political Expert in the Running to Succeed Nasrallah

Everyone is eagerly awaiting the name of Hezbollah’s coming leader during this crucial time, the most challenging since its founding in the 1980s after the assassination of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, by Israeli Occupation bombs.

Following talks of an assassination attempt on Hashem Safieddine, the most likely candidate to succeed Nasrallah, Ibrahim Amin al-Sayyed has emerged as a prominent contender for the party's leadership.

‘Born of Revolutionary Guards’

At 69 years old, al-Sayyed is recognized as one of the key political figures influencing local, regional, and international affairs, which bolsters his significant role in managing the party’s public policies. He is noted for his ability to articulate the political events that affect Lebanon, using his high rhetorical language in that to do so.

Hezbollah's media office describes Ibrahim al-Sayyed as the second-ranking figure in the party hierarchy, following Sheikh Naim Qassem, who has served as Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general since 1991.

Since the assassination of the party’s third leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an Israeli Occupation strike on a Beirut suburb on September 27, 2024, Hezbollah has faced substantial challenges, including the election of a new secretary-general to reorganize its ranks.

Ibrahim al-Sayyed, identifiable by his black turban, has risen to prominence following statements from Mohammad Ali al-Husseini, secretary-general of the Arab Islamic Council in Lebanon, who announced that Hezbollah's Shura Council had selected al-Sayyed as the new secretary-general to succeed Hashem Safieddine, who was targeted by “Israel” in an attack on the party’s headquarters in southern Beirut on October 3, 2024.

In a television interview with Saudi Arabia’s al-Arabiya channel on October 4, 2024, al-Husseini noted that al-Sayyed was Hezbollah’s first spokesperson in 1985 and the first to present the party’s political document. He also highlighted al-Sayyed's extensive experience in military, security, and political affairs, describing him as “born of the Revolutionary Guards,” and the first to align with them in Baalbek, possessing profound knowledge of the party's inner workings.

Hezbollah, established by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard in 1982, has continued to receive financial and military support from Iran to this day.

The Shura Council, the highest authority within Hezbollah, elects the secretary-general, but no announcement regarding Nasrallah's succession has yet been made. It is assumed that Naim Qassem, the deputy secretary-general, is currently acting as secretary-general following the vacancy in leadership.

Ibrahim al-Sayyed was born in the Beqaa Valley of Lebanon in 1955 into a religious and political environment, where he received religious education in Shiite seminaries, granting him deep religious and jurisprudential knowledge.

Al-Sayyed has been with Hezbollah since the very beginning and has played an active role in shaping its political and military movement. Throughout his career, he has advanced through various positions to become president of the political council, overseeing public policies and coordinating with Lebanese and international political forces.

As head of the political council, al-Sayyed is responsible for directing Hezbollah’s domestic and foreign policies.

When the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions in 2018 on the Shura Council of Hezbollah and its members, the list included Hassan Nasrallah, Naim Qassem, and Ibrahim al-Sayyed.

The potential successor to Nasrallah has an official website featuring his speeches, statements, interviews, and religious sermons for Shiite occasions.

Political Presence 

Ibrahim al-Sayyed was recognized early on in Lebanese political circles for organizing seminars to discuss regional political developments, particularly regarding Hezbollah's confrontations with Israel.

When Hezbollah intervened in Syria in 2012 at the behest of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to fight alongside Bashar al-Assad's forces against the Syrian opposition, al-Sayyed played a role in justifying the party's intervention policies.

He was among the senior Hezbollah leaders who attended the funerals of the party's casualties in Syria, delivering eulogies during the memorial services in Lebanese towns.

In November 2018, al-Sayyed visited Syria, where he went to Homs province to honor its governor, Talal al-Barazi, for his efforts in assisting Lebanese families in the region.

There are families of Hezbollah members stationed on both sides of the border, particularly in the town of al-Qusayr in the Homs countryside, which Hezbollah has occupied since 2013, forcing its residents to flee to this day.

When former Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called in late December 2016 for “all foreign fighters to leave Syria,” stating that “Hezbollah should return to Lebanon,” Ibrahim al-Sayyed responded, saying, “Hezbollah is not present in Syria by Turkish decision, nor will it leave by Turkish decision.”

Hezbollah Advocate

Ibrahim al-Sayyed is known as the most approachable leader within Hezbollah's hierarchy, reaching out to other Lebanese factions for dialogue.

He believes that “the United States has forcibly turned Iran into a hostile state towards Arabs and Muslims,” further stating that "the Arabs have conceded, transforming Israel, once the enemy, into an ally and friend, while casting Iran, their 'sister' and an Islamic nation, as the enemy.”

Al-Sayyed is not hesitant to make provocative statements within the Lebanese political landscape. He commented on the economic crisis Lebanon has been facing since 2019, which has plunged 80% of the population into poverty.

“We are facing a significant economic and social crisis in Lebanon due to external factors and a clique of corrupt rulers internally who remain indifferent to the people and their living crises,” he stated in early January 2023.

The favored to succeed Nasrallah considers any political event in Lebanon as directly related to Hezbollah's fate, which possesses Iranian weapons. His opponents in Lebanon claim that Hezbollah uses these weapons to dominate the country and call for their disarmament.

In the 2022 parliamentary elections, which challenged Hezbollah's dominance in the council due to the rise of opposition groups, Ibrahim al-Sayyed stated before the voting that “the parliamentary elections represent a political July War, as they want our weapons, our resistance, and our community, so that Israel and the United States can dictate all in our country.”

During a political gathering organized by the party at the Husseiniya in the town of al-Ain in northern Beqaa, he said, “The Americans, Israelis, and Europeans want the weapons, the resistance, and the community to establish a parliamentary council that can elect a president capable of forming a government that fits their wishes.”

At that time, he noted that “electoral funds have started to circulate, with the price for each vote ranging between fifty and one hundred dollars.”

During the 2018 elections, Ibrahim al-Sayyed called for “voting to protect the resistance and the process to shape the destiny and future of this region, even if it’s within the small political circle of elections in Lebanon.3

He believes that what the United States seeks from the elections in Lebanon is to “turn the Lebanese against the resistance.”

In response to Operation al-Aqsa Flood launched by the Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas) on October 7, 2023, Ibrahim al-Sayyed stated at the end of the same month that this attack “had stripped the Zionist entity [the Israeli Occupation] of its strength and power.”