SOUTH LEBANON – Three weeks have passed since Judge Nawaf Salam was assigned to form a new cabinet amidst complicated negotiations with the political factions, especially those who directly receive orders from the US embassy.

Reportedly, Salam is trying to impose a pre-set government. Observers believe the goal of this obstruction is to undermine the Hezbollah-Amal duo, especially after Salam backed down from appointing former minister Yassin Jaber (representing the Shiite duo) as minister of finance.

“I will not back down from the criteria that I adopt to form the government, most notably appointing ministers who are not candidates for the [parliamentary] elections ... Accordingly, Arab support and international confidence will be restored,” Salam stated last week, 
Stressing, “There is no ministry that is exclusive to a certain sect.”

Besides, Salam informed President Aoun that “there is a fundamental obstacle that still exists with the Amal-Hezbollah duo. The other obstacles can be easily overcome once they are resolved with the Shiites.”

Obviously, the international pressure on Salam is to deprive the duo of the sovereign ministries, and also to appoint anti-Hezbollah Shiite figures as ministers.

Upon meeting Nabih Berri, Speaker of the Parliament, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdel Aati stressed the necessity of “a complete and undiminished (Israeli) withdrawal from southern Lebanon”, noting that Cairo is intensively coordinating with Washington, Paris and the Israeli side with the aim of fully implementing UN Resolution 1701.

Meanwhile, specialized units in the Lebanese army continue to search for unexploded ordnance to secure the return of residents to the border villages. However, the enemy continues to violate the ceasefire agreement through airstrikes and sniping at civilians.

In turn, Hezbollah’s Jihad al-Bina Foundation announced on Friday that it had begun surveying and restoring border villages in the western sector (Tyre district).

MP Hussein Jishi from Hezbollah’s Loyalty to the Resistance bloc revealed that within two months the reconstruction project “surveyed more than 250,000 housing units.”

In parallel, the mayors of these villages are coordinating with the Electricité du Liban, Ogero Telecommunications Authority, and the Council of the South regarding the re-supply of basic services, as well as the opening of roads and the removal of rubble.

Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Regie Tobacco Company announced the annual crop in the south declined significantly, falling from 5 million kilos in 2019 to less than one million kilos in 2024 due to the financial crisis that Lebanon witnessed, the subsequent US sanctions, and the recent Israeli aggression.

The World Bank also estimated the damage to the agricultural sector – during the war on Lebanon – at $127 million.

According to Dr. Howayda Al-Turk, the Governor of Nabatieh, coordination is underway with the Ministry of Health to attract international aid for hospitals in the south, noting that the cost of rebuilding Tebnin Governmental Hospital is estimated at about $250,000, while the cost of restoring Bint Jbeil Governmental Hospital is about $200,000.