Hezbollah has announced Naim Qassem as its new head.
Qassem, whose promotion from deputy leader was announced on Tuesday, replaces Hassan Nasrallah as secretary-general of the Lebanon-based group.
Nasrallah was killed in Beirut in late September by an Israeli air strike.
In a statement, Hezbollah said Qassem was elected to take up the position due to his “adherence to the principles and goals of Hezbollah”.
The group prayed “God Almighty to guide him in this noble mission in leading Hezbollah and its Islamic resistance”.
The death of Nasrallah, who embodied the Lebanese Shia movement in the eyes of its supporters and the wider region, had left a vacuum inside the group, especially when Hashem Safieddine, previously viewed as the favourite to succeed him, was also killed by Israeli forces.
The new leader, 71-year-old Qassem, is one of the religious scholars who founded the group in the early 1980s and has a long history in Shia political activism.
He was the most senior Hezbollah official to continue making public appearances after Nasrallah largely went into hiding following the group defeated Israel in a war in 2006.
Since the former leader was killed, Qassem has made three televised addresses, speaking in more formal Arabic than the colloquial Lebanese favoured by Nasrallah.
On September 30, he issued a defiant message to Israel, saying Hezbollah remains ready to fight Israel and to win.
