Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has served as Hezbollah's leader since 1992.  Under Nasrallah's leadership of the Majlis al-Shura, the group's Consultative Council and highest governing body, Hezbollah has waged a guerrilla war against Israeli military forces in southern Lebanon and has carried out terrorist attacks against Americans and Israelis throughout the world.

Nasrallah was born in Beirut in 1960.  When he was 15, he moved to Najaf, an Iraqi city sacred to Shi'i Muslims, to study Islam under the supervision of Abbas Musawi.  In 1978, Nasrallah was expelled from Saddam Hussein's regime and returned to Lebanon and joined the Amal movement, a militia led by Musawi that was established to promote the Shi'i cause in Lebanon.  After the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982, Nasrallah followed Musawi into Hezbollah as a guerilla commander. 

Nasrallah took over leadership of Hezbollah after Musawi was assassinated in 1992.  Within weeks under Nasrallah's command, Hezbollah bombed the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29 people and injured more than 240 others.  Nasrallah has also orchestrated Hezbollah attacks against other Jewish and Israeli targets in Argentina, Africa, Sweden, Denmark, Thailand and the U.K. 

Nasrallah was the driving force behind Hezbollah's attacks against Israel in the summer of 2006.  Following the 34-day conflict, during which Hezbollah fired approximately 4,000 rockets into Israel, Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah had achieved "a strategic, historic victory."

Since the end the 2006 Israeli-Hezbollah conflict, Nasrallah has increased his anti-Israel rhetoric and issued numerous statements threatening the Jewish state.  In the aftermath of the February 2008 car bombing in Syria that killed Hezbollah Operations Chief Imad Mughniyah, Nasrallah stated that the assassination will result in the "disappearance of the Jewish state" and declared "open war" on Israel.  The following month, Nasrallah told thousands of supporters that the "Zionist entity can be wiped out of existence."  Nasrallah has also threatened that Hezbollah has rebuilt and improved its rocket and missiles arsenal and now has the capabilities to strike deep into Israel.

Hezbollah officials announced in November 2009 that they had reelected Nasrallah for a sixth term as the group's leader.  Nasrallah and members of Hezbollah have increasingly become politically active and are represented by elected deputies in Lebanon's cabinet and parliament.

Despite Hezbollah's emergence as a political entity in Lebanon, the group has maintained its ideological war against Israel and the U.S.  While outlining the group's new platform in November 2009, Nasrallah stated that the best way to defeat Israel, the "cancerous entity," is through "armed struggle and military resistance."  Nasrallah, who also labeled the U.S. as the "root of all terror in the world," declared that he and his organization "categorically reject any compromise with Israel or recognizing its legitimacy."

Nasrallah: In His Own Words

Hassan Nasrallah has been the public face and voice of Hezbollah since Abbas Musawi was assassinated in 1992.  Since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000, Nasrallah has issued dozens of statements depicting Israel as a cancer and an enemy of Islam that needs to be "wiped out of existence."  Nasrallah has also declared the U.S. an enemy of Hezbollah because of American support for Israel.  

The following is a sampling of the statements and recordings issued by Nasrallah on behalf of Hezbollah:

January 15, 2010:

• "Resistance forces will ultimately triumph.  We will come out victorious and change the face of the region.  The Israeli entity will disappear and American sovereignty over the world will vanish, and we will triumph.  I appeal to all the international organizations to support us in order to achieve this victory."

May 18, 2009:

• "The Zionist entity is not legitimate, and will not be legitimate in any situation."

January 7, 2009:

• "The Gaza war proved that Israel is the enemy of the world of Islam."

• "Your 2006 war will be but a walk in the park compared to what we have prepared for you in the event of a new offensive.  We are ready to sacrifice our souls, our brothers and sisters, our children, our loved ones for what we believe in."

• "In front of the Zionist entity that is based on spilling the blood of the innocent and committing massacres, the least thing to do is not to give legitimacy to this entity regardless of the sacrifices… Not acknowledging Israel, rejecting normalization with it is the least that can be done."

• "Israel is our enemy and the enemy of our nation.  It will remain as such even if some make peace with it.  The U.S. administration fosters Israel and protects it, so this administration will remain our enemy and the enemy of our nation…"

December 28, 2008: 

• "What is happening in Gaza will have repercussions not only for Gaza alone or Palestine, but for the entire ummah [Muslim community].  We must continue our work and not be satisfied with an activity here, a demonstration there … We must exert every effort to defend our people."

• "… northern Israel will burn as Gaza is burning."

• "What is happening today in Gaza is not similar but identical to what happened in July of 2006… It is the same choices, the same battle, the same conspiracies and, God willing, there will be the same outcome."

September 26, 2008: 

• "Palestine, from the sea to the river, is the property of Arabs and Palestinians and no one has the right to give up even a single grain of earth or one stone, because every grain of the land is holy.  The entire land must be returned to its rightful owners."

March 24, 2008: 

• "Could Israel be wiped out of existence?  Yes, and a thousand times yes."

February 14, 2008:

• "Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, then let the entire world listen: let it be an open war.  We have a sacred right to self-defense and we will do everything this right entitles us to do to defend our country…"

• "The July war is not over.  It is ongoing and no ceasefire was ever declared."

• "After they killed Hajj Imad, let them hear me well: in any coming war, not just one Imad Mughniyah will be waiting for you, and not just a few thousands fighters.  Imad Mughniyah has left behind him tens of thousands of trained, equipped and ready-for-martyrdom fighters""

• "Mughniyah's blood will lead to the elimination of Israel.  These words are not an emotional reaction."

• "First, they, that is, the Zionists, consider the martyrdom of Al-Hajj Imad a great achievement while we consider it great news, signaling the upcoming decisive and final victory, God willing."

• "…let the whole world note - and I take responsibility for this - that we should start writing the history of the phase which signals the beginning of the collapse of the State of Israel."

• "The consequences of shedding the blessed, pure blood of Hajj Imad Mughniyah, Shaykh Raghib, Al-Sayyid Abbas, Fathi al-Shaqaqi, Ahmad Yasin, and the other martyrs, leaders, and mujahadeen [Muslim warriors] will destroy this cancerous, usurper entity which has been planted in the heart of our Arab and Islamic nation."

July 14, 2006:

• "We are going to an open war, to Haifa and beyond Haifa.  We will not be the only ones who will lose their children and houses."

• "To the Zionists, to the people of the Zionist entity at this hour I say to them: you will soon discover how foolish and stupid are your new rulers, your new leaders…Not only our houses will be destroyed.  Not only our children will be killed.  Not only our people will be displaced.  Those days are past.  That was how it was before 1982, and before the year 2000."

July 12, 2006:

• "Our operation succeeded, we have results and honor.  We kept our promise to kidnap soldiers [to secure] the release of prisoners, and therefore are calling the attack 'Operation Promise Fulfilled'"

October 28, 2005:

• "The international community is not concerned with protecting the interests of the Palestinians, Lebanese or Arabs in general.  They only serve Israeli and American schemes currently targeting Syria, Lebanon and Palestine."

May 25, 2005

• "We are among the biggest proponents of peace, stability and national unity.  We don't seek to attack anyone and we will not allow anyone to attack Lebanon…But, if anyone thinks of disarming the resistance, we would cut off any hand that reaches out to our weapons as an Israeli hand."

October 22, 2002:

• "If they [the Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."

December 22, 2000:

• "[Israel is] a cancer that needs to be removed at its roots."

• "Our weapons, our blood and our rockets are all yours [the Palestinians], too, and we will we stay with you until we can pray with you at the Al-Aqsa mosque in united Jerusalem, capital of all of Palestine!"

October 28, 2000:

• "The road to victory is the road of martyrdom….The most important operations in the confrontation are suicide missions, because of their negative material, psychological and moral effect on the enemy and their positive effect on the mujahideen [Muslim warriors]."