Hassan Nasrallah is the current Secretary General of the Lebanese political party group Hezbollah.

Background

Nasrallah was born in the East Beirut neighborhood of Bourj Hammoud in 1960, the eldest of nine children. In 1975, the Lebanese Civil War forced his family to return to their ancestral home in the South Lebanese village Bassouriyeh where Nasrallah joined the Amal movement, a political and paramilitary organization representing Shi'a in Lebanon.

From south Lebanon, young Nasrallah then moved to Najaf, Iraq to study at Shi'a seminary. In 1978, Nasrallah and other Shi'a clerics and students considered by the Sunni government to be radical were forced to leave Iraq and return to Lebanon. There, Nasrallah studied and taught at Amal leader Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi's school. In 1982, after the Israeli invasion, Nasrallah followed Musawi out of Amal and into an umbrella organization of radical Iranian and Lebanese called Hezbollah.

Leadership of Hezbollah

Following the Israeli military's killing of Hezbollah leader Sheikh Musawi, his wife, and 3 year old daughter by helicopter fired Hellfire missiles in February of 1992, Nasrallah was asked to take over Hezbollah at the request of Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iran is Hezbollah's main backer.

Under Nasrallah's leadership, Hezbollah became a serious opponent of the Israel Defense Forces in Southern Lebanon, and Hezbollah attacks on the IDF were an important factor in Israel's decision to leave Lebanon in May 2000. Consequently, Hezbollah is widely credited in Lebanon for the liberation of the south; a patriotic achievement that has greatly bolstered the party's national political standing.

After the Israeli withdrawal, Nasrallah completed a complex exchange of prisoners with Israel resulting in hundreds of Palestinian and Hezbollah militants being freed and bodies of militants returned to Lebanon. Hezbollah's position, along with that of Syria and the Lebanese government, is that the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon is not complete, with Lebanon claiming sovereignty over the Sheba Farms . A United Nations team sent to certify Israeli withdrawal has done so, thereby indirectly allocating the Farms to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights, a Syrian territory. Because of this dispute, Nasrallah often calls for the "continued resistance" against Israeli occupation of Lebanon.

Nasrallah has been heavily involved in the aftermath of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, sometimes referred to as the Cedar Revolution or Lebanon's Cedar Spring. The unrest and popular agitation which has engulfed the country has threatened the continued perceived influence of Syria, one of Hizbollah's main backers, in Lebanon. Nasrallah has called several large demonstrations expressing support for Syria and the rejection of foreign intervention.