Prime Minister Nawaf Salam upon his arrival at the Saida Serail, southern Lebanon, on Oct. 16, 2025. (Credit: Muntasser Abdallah/L'Orient-Le Jour)
BEIRUT — Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam is set to tour southern Lebanon on Saturday and Sunday, with stops planned in major cities such as Sour and Nabatieh, as well as several border towns that have been severely affected by Israeli strikes.
While Hezbollah and its base are often quick to criticize the government's inaction regarding the South — whether for defending it against ongoing Israeli attacks or initiating reconstruction — the vice president of the Higher Shiite Islamic Council, Ali al-Khatib, praised this tour, while also denouncing the government's "insufficient measures."
According to information confirmed by the Grand Serail, the Council president will begin his visit in the Sour district.
First, in the city of Sour itself, where he will hold a meeting at city hall with regional MPs and municipal heads, before heading to the headquarters of the Lebanese Army’s 5th Brigade in the Bayada area.
During their ground invasion in the South, the Israelis had reached the edge of this region at the end of 2024.
Salam will then continue to the border locality of Tayr Harfa, before moving on to Yaroun (Bint Jbeil district) to meet with the municipal presidents of Dhaira, Zalloutieh, Boustan, and Marwahine, in the damaged al-Makassed school building.
Next, he will stop in Bint Jbeil, where he will hold a meeting at the headquarters of the Union of Municipalities, before continuing his tour in Aitaroun, then in the majority-Christian villages of Ain Ibl and Rmeish.
On Sunday, the prime minister is expected to meet with the president of the Kfar Kila municipality (Marjayoun district) outside this village devastated by Israeli attacks, at the Tall al-Nahhas junction.
He will then head to the Marjayoun barracks, followed by the government building to meet with municipal presidents from the region before visiting Kfar Shuba to talk with municipal presidents from the Arqoub area at the Union of Municipalities headquarters in Hebbarieh, a village in the Hasbaya district of southern Lebanon.
Salam will also visit the headquarters of the Hasbani Union of Municipalities in the district and will conclude his tour in Nabatieh.
A visit of 'political and national importance'
Khatib, known to be close to the pro-Iranian party, lauded the organization of this tour in his Friday sermon, at a time when the reconstruction of areas destroyed by the fall 2024 war between Hezbollah and Israel has yet to begin and Israeli strikes are a daily occurrence in southern Lebanon.
The reconstruction project, which amounts to several billion dollars, depends on international funding, which is conditional on the effective disarmament of Hezbollah — something the group refuses to do north of the Litani River.
“We welcome the prime minister's planned visit to the South tomorrow and the day after, given its political and national importance, particularly at this sensitive stage when the South and the Bekaa are facing repeated Israeli attacks, daily violations of sovereignty, and a direct threat to citizens' safety and livelihoods,” Khatib said.
“However, welcoming this visit does not prevent us from raising fundamental questions, nor does it exempt us from constructive criticism of the government's work, whose measures remain insufficient in meeting the challenges ahead and the promises made in its ministerial statement,” the cleric added.
He called on the government to “move from verbal statements to concrete measures and increased pressure on the international and U.N. stage,” in order to force Israel into a cease-fire and to withdraw from the five points it still occupies within Lebanese territory.
Following news of Salam’s tour, residents of the border locality of Ramaya (Bint Jbeil district) lamented that their village was not on the itinerary. “In the face of continued Israeli aggression against their land and sovereign rights,” the residents said in a Friday statement, “the absence of a visit ... to personally observe the suffering of its inhabitants” was regretful.
They denounced “a clear failure in national responsibilities” and “neglect” toward them.
This is Salam’s third official tour as head of government in this part of the country, which is subjected to daily Israeli strikes.
After his visit in late February 2025, he returned in October of that same year, after the parliament speaker and Amal Movement leader, Nabih Berri, accused the government of being completely uninterested in the residents of southern Lebanon.
Salam has also faced sharp criticism from Hezbollah, which refuses to surrender its arsenal to the state, even as the government has made the state’s monopoly over arms one of its primary objectives.
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