Who is Hashem Safieddine? Hezbollah leader and Nasrallah's successor targeted by Israeli airstrikes

Unconfirmed US media reports have suggested Hezbollah strongman Hashem Safieddine was the target of Israel's latest strikes on Beirut. 

He is the maternal cousin of Hezbollah's slain leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in a massive Israeli air raid in south Beirut last week. 

Safieddine has long been tipped as Nasrallah's successor after serving in some of Hezbollah's highest positions for decades.

Unlike Nasrallah, who had lived in hiding to avoid assassination, Safieddine has been a more public Hezbollah figure.

He has close ties to Iran, where he studied. His son is married to the daughter of Qassem Soleimani, an Iranian general who was killed in a US airstrike in Iraq in 2020.

In 2017, the US designated Safieddine a terrorist over his role in Hezbollah, which it considers a terrorist organization. 

His fate after the latest strikes in Beirut remains unclear. The Israeli military has not commented on whether Safieddine was targeted by the latest strikes.