Syed Hassan Nasrallah

Born in 1960 in East Beirut's Bourji Hammoud neighborhood, Nasrallah, the oldest of nine children, aspired to religious leadership from a young age. In 1975, when a civil war broke out in Lebanon, Nasrallah's family moved to its ancestral home in the southern Lebanese village of Bassouriyeh. While attending services in the nearby city of Tyre, Nasrallah caught the attention of one of the clerics, who encouraged him to pursue his theological education abroad. The following year, upon finishing secondary school, Nasrallah went to study in a seminary in Najaf, Iraq. It was there he first met Musawi.

In 1978, Iraq expelled hundreds of Lebanese religious students, and Nasrallah and Musawi were forced to return to Lebanon. There Musawi established a religious school where Nasrallah taught and studied. His passionate sermons won him a number of Shiite followers, many of whom joined Nasrallah in organizing an armed resistance to the Israeli invasion in 1982. These fighting groups soon evolved into Hezbollah, and Nasrallah distinguished himself as an adept guerilla commander. In 1987, during a lull in the violence, Nasrallah resumed his religious studies at a seminary in Qom, Iran, but when hostilities resumed in 1989, he returned to Lebanon. By that time, a rift was emerging among Hezbollah's leadership between those—led by Musawi—advocating broader Syrian influence in Lebanon and those—led by Nasrallah—who opposed Syrian involvement and pushed for a harder line against Israel and the United States. Nasrallah found himself in the minority. Later that year he was sent back to Iran to serve as Hezbollah's representative in Tehran in what experts say was likely an effort to sideline him.

In 1991, Musawi became secretary-general of Hezbollah and Nasrallah returned to Lebanon, apparently having softened his views on Syria. Nasrallah replaced Musawi as Hezbollah's leader after his mentor's assassination by Israeli forces. In December 2007, the London-based newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat caused a stir when it reported that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had ordered Nasrallah to hand over control of Hezbollah's military wing to deputy chief Sheikh Naim Qasim. But Hezbollah and Iran's foreign ministry have refuted this report.