Nawaf Salam

His March 2026 actions against Hezbollah were without precedent for a sitting Lebanese prime minister. Salam publicly branded a Hezbollah attack on Israel 'irresponsible and suspicious,' convened emergency cabinet sessions, and issued a formal ban on all Hezbollah military activity from Lebanese soil. His government then ordered arrests of anyone launching missiles from Lebanese soil and severed state ties with Iran's Revolutionary Guard. In the sharpest assertion of Lebanese sovereignty in decades, he expelled Iranian Ambassador-Designate Mohammad Reza Sheibani, ordering him out of the country by 29 March.

Nawaf Salam, a Sunni jurist and diplomat, became Lebanon's Prime Minister in January 2025 after Joseph Aoun was elected President, ending a two-year institutional vacuum. His appointment was welcomed as a break from the traditional warlord-affiliated political class: he had spent years at the International Court of Justice and as Lebanon's UN Ambassador, building a reputation outside sectarian networks.

These moves transformed Salam from a technocratic reformist into the defining figure in Lebanon's contest for sovereign authority. The stakes sharpened further when Israel declared a security zone occupying nearly 10% of Lebanese territory south of the Litani River, with Defence Minister Katz ordering demolitions on the 'Beit Hanoun and Rafah models.' Hezbollah fired 600 projectiles in 24 hours in response. Whether Salam's orders can be enforced against a heavily armed non-state actor operating under Israeli bombardment remains the defining question of his tenure.