Beirut:
The funeral for the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, killed last September in an Israeli strike, will take place on February 23, the current chief Qassem of the group backed by Iran said on Sunday.
Qassem also confirmed for the first time that official leader Hashem Safieddine had been chosen to happen to Nasrallah before he was also killed in an Israeli raid in October.
The group will celebrate Safieddine’s funeral the same day.
“After the security conditions avoided celebrating a funeral” for two months of total war between the group and Israel that ended on November 27, Hezbollah has decided to maintain “on February 23 a great … public funeral” for Nasrallah Said Qassem, Qassem in a televised speech.
Safieddine will be buried “as secretary general” or leader of Hezbollah, because “we had chosen his eminence Sayyed Hashem as general secretary … but he was martyred on October 3, one day or two before the announcement,” said Qassem.
Nasrallah will be buried on the outskirts of Beirut “on a plot of land that we chose between the old and new roads of the airport”, while Safieddine will be buried in his hometown of Deir Qanun in the south of Lebanon, he said.
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