Nasrallah, Sheikh Hassan (1960–)

General secretary of the Lebanese Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah since 1992, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah presided over Israel's 2000 withdrawal from southern Lebanon. Nasrallah is said to be Hezbollah's most diplomatic leader, and is known for guiding the organization into a more political, rather than violent, role in Lebanon.

The son of a poor vegetable vendor and a descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, Nasrallah fled his home in eastern Beirut in 1975 at the start of the Lebanese civil war. He later traveled to Iraq to study theology in the holy Shiite city of Najaf. Like many Shiite leaders, Nasrallah left Iraq by decree of President Saddam Hussein. When just 21, Nasrallah helped to found the militant Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, or Party of God. During the 1980s, when Hezbollah made headlines by taking a number of Western hostages, Nasrallah served as a commander in Lebanon's Bekaa region.

When the Lebanese civil war ended in the early 1990s, most of the country's militias disarmed; Hezbollah, however, continued to fight Israeli troops occupying southern Lebanon. In 1992, Israeli forces assassinated Nasrallah's predecessor, Sheikh Abbas [Page 254]Musawi, along with his wife and 5-year-old son. Hezbollah members then elected Nasrallah to head the party. Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah grew into a great political force, holding seats in the Lebanese Parliament and managing schools, hospitals, and various media outlets. In 1997, Nasrallah's 18-year-old son Muhammad Hadi was killed in a fight with Israeli soldiers inside southern Lebanon. After his son's death, Nasrallah told a Beirut crowd that he thanked God for choosing his son to be a martyr.

When the Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Nasrallah publicly announced that his Hezbollah fighters had won the only Arab victory in the 50-year conflict with Israel.

Hezbollah's increased involvement in Lebanon's political and social life has led to a disagreement among world governments about the group's status. The U.S. State Department included Hezbollah in its 2000 list of world terrorist organizations, and froze the group's assets after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon near Washington, D.C. A 2001 list of terrorist organizations released by the European Union, in contrast, did not include Hezbollah.