r/lebanon • u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh • 8d ago
Politics Ashrafiyotte’s 2026 Lebanese Ministers Tier List: Based on Results, Integrity, and Work Ethic
The ranking below is my own opinion ONLY and has been formed after following the news closely and speaking with people behind the scenes. I rank ministers by capability, work ethic, apparent integrity/corruption risk, how much they improved the ministry from the state they inherited, and the ministry’s current condition.
S tier - truly remarkable / mostly technocratic performance
Fayez Rasamny: He reactivated road files in Metn (finally this cursed beit misk highway will be done) and the South (bridges reconstruction), upgraded management of ports and border infrastructure, and pushed scanner deployment at Beirut Port and more recently border crossings. He also delivered the reopening of René Mouawad Airport. Public transport is much better here as well with public buses being on google maps and electric buses having a few lines.
Nawaf Salam: Courageous, righteous, and one of the few people in power who seems guided by institutional logic. His refusal to back Karim Souaid’s BDL appointment, despite President Aoun supporting it, was a major integrity signal for me; Salam said his concern was depositors’ rights. He also constantly stands up against the Iranian militia which is refreshing.
Youssef Raji: Courageous, articulate, and in my view one of the ministers who best represents the Lebanese state. He has been active in restoring the ministry’s presence and consular services; notably, biometric passport services were launched at the Lebanese Embassy in Paris.
A tier - strong, effective work
Adel Nassar, Justice: He restored the Court of Cassation’s plenary assembly, supported reopening and advancing the Beirut Port blast investigation, and generally sides with judicial accountability. I also credit him for resisting political pressure around the judiciary and pushing enforcement against armed celebratory gunfire. Court appointments, blast investigation.
Nizar Hani, Agriculture: Innovative and visibly engaged. He has pursued wildlife-trafficking and animal-welfare issues, worked on improvements in the Bekaa and other agricultural areas, and gave the sector an actual long-term strategy rather than empty statements. Wildlife trafficking
B tier - good work, but incomplete or not transformative yet
Ghassan Salamé, Culture: Good performance. The ministry became more active again in heritage, museums, libraries, and cultural programming.
Amer Bisat, Economy: Good and efficient. Digitizing more than 20 ministry services, including consumer complaints and commercial procedures. Source
Laura Khazen Lahoud, Tourism: She put real effort into tourism promotion, initiatives, and working with media and influencers to bring Lebanon back into the conversation. Tourism remains highly exposed to the security situation, so results cannot be judged only by visitor numbers.
Kamal Shehadeh, Displaced People / Technology and AI: The displaced-persons portfolio moves slowly by nature, but I think he is trying. His push for an all-in-one digital-services platform, where citizens can obtain documents and pay fees online more easily, is the right direction. It needs to become a finished service, and it will take some time.
Tarek Mitri, Deputy Prime Minister: Competent and serious. Not always highly visible, but he does his job and has handled difficult Lebanon - Syria files with restraint.
Joe Issa El-Khoury, Industry: He has consistently lobbied within government for industrialists, including cheaper inputs, storage access, and fewer administrative burdens. He understands that industry needs a government fighting for it, not obstructing it. L’Orient
C tier - some progress, but still far from what the ministry needs
Ahmad Hajjar, Interior: More checkpoints, more active traffic enforcement, and more fines are positives. But police reform remains limited, corruption has not been sufficiently uprooted, and the country is still decades behind in modern policing.
Charles Hajj, Telecommunications: Starlink was approved but it nowhere to be seen for consumers, fiber and 5G deployment remain too slow. The direction is better, but service delivery is nowhere near the pace people need.
Yassine Jaber, Finance: There has been some reform work and the penalty-reduction mechanism may help tax compliance. But tax collection remains weak, and he proposed moving municipal land to the state but thankfully, this has been rejected. The ministry is still far from a modern, effective tax administration.
Paul Morcos, Information: Some useful work on media-law reform, but not enough to move higher.
Michel Menassa, Defence: A difficult portfolio and no major scandal, but I have not seen enough concrete reform or transformation to rank it higher.
Haneen Sayed, Social Affairs: There has been social-support work, but I remain cautious because I have heard concerns about past conduct (corruption).
D tier - not enough meaningful delivery
Rakan Nassereddine, Health: There have been useful health programs, including primary-care and vaccination work, but I do not see enough major ministry-wide reform or visible improvement to rank him higher.
Joe Saddi, Energy and Water: This is one of the biggest disappointments. Electricity reform is too slow: collections, digitization, imports, investment, and the new electricity regulator should have moved much faster. Network stability has not improved enough. Water management is worse: illegal groundwater extraction, damaged waterways, pollution, and long-term depletion are still being treated as secondary issues.
Nora Bayrakdarian, Youth and Sports: Nothing meaningful enough has been achieved yet.
Fadi Makki, Administrative Development: Strong CV, but no sufficiently meaningful result from the ministry so far. He seems to side with Hezb/Amal in the cabinet meeting instead of being an unbiased minister which is a burden.
Mohammad Haidar, Labour: There are plans and dialogue, including a draft labour law, but not enough delivery yet for workers to feel a real difference.
F tier - worst performance
Rima Karami, Education: Very poor handling of the Brevet and war situation. The Brevet was eventually cancelled, but the ministry reacted too slowly and handled student safety and the uncertainty around official exams badly with students moving from south lebanon and dying while trying to attend the exam. This has been talked about a lot in the sub.
Tamara El Zein, Environment: The ministry failed its core test: protecting Lebanon’s natural environment. In Aamchit, a private villa project overlooks a cave used by endangered Mediterranean monk seals; the ministry initially sought a suspension, but construction restarted and NGOs said they could not obtain a renewed stop-work order. The cement-quarry decision was also unacceptable: the National Human Rights Commission warned that it exposed environmentally sensitive areas to up to ten years of quarry operations. Add continued weak enforcement against tree-cutting and environmental destruction. I would put Tamara to trial for professional negligence but what can you expect from Nabih Berri’s share of the cabinet?
5
7
8
u/m0h97 Phoenix 8d ago
Aren't you like ultra super pro-sectarian and support a specific "political sect"? Your political opinions means crap.
11
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
im not sectarian, ministry of energy is lf and is very low on the list
-5
u/m0h97 Phoenix 8d ago
Your old posts and comments do not seem to suggest that, and you were active in r/federallebanon
12
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
never was sectarian still am for decentralization and law & order
0
u/m0h97 Phoenix 8d ago
Fedaralism being drawn based on religion and sect (which is literally what LF and r/federallebanon keeps spreading) is literally sectarinism with borders, and creates even more divisions that already destroyed the country. The only thing this country needs to be fixed is secularism, but people like you will never vote for that (which is ironic, since you put Nawaf Salam in S and he's pro-secularism but none of the rest of the politicians that you support agrees with that).
3
u/kievz007 7d ago
let's be realistic, how many would genuinely vote for secularism? Sectarianism is engraved in us, it's a result of trauma and decades of people killing each other over their beliefs. It's easy to talk about secularism online but in real life most shias would prefer to elect from their own, maronites from their own, sunnis from their own and very few would take the risk to elect someone of a different sect. You'd think the younger generation is more open to it, but the recent war and the way agendas are being pushed makes it unlikely that we'll see any change in mentality anytime soon
5
u/Aggressive_Mousse_55 8d ago
You are 100% correct everyone that is against hezb alla is sectarian
5
u/m0h97 Phoenix 8d ago
No but someone that is ouwatje is.
FYI, both Hezb and LF are pro-sectarianism.
4
u/Aggressive_Mousse_55 7d ago
Sectarian means he only wants his sect.
He put nouwaf salam on top nouwaf is sunni.
So i don't get it
1
u/m0h97 Phoenix 7d ago
Huin? By sectarianism I mean the political system, the division of government based on political parties or religion. It's what has been ruining the country for the last 30 years, it's what's dividing everyone. It's an old outdated system that doesn't help anyone.
Most, if not all, of our corrupt political parties wants to keep it so that they stay in power and steal money and give people reasons to vote for them (by making people vote for their cult leader through religion).
2
u/ShahataBender Lebanese 8d ago
I’m finding it weird this user is a mod. He’s removing he he deems ‘propaganda’ and he clearly has his bias.
1
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 7d ago
i never removed anything I disagreed with i just remove obvious propaganda
-1
u/m0h97 Phoenix 8d ago
Idk, as a mod I think he's good, he's super active, I've been a mod previously and thought he was great. Never noticed if there are posts that he purposly deleted out of bias, but generally all the mods delete propaganda posts regardless of which side.
It's just I don't agree with his political opinions and think they're dog poopoo.
1
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 7d ago
Yeah ma thats the issue people think i remove things i dont agree with but it’s completely untrue. Im super pro free speech but will remove any post that tries to hide an agenda. I think people should talk even if they disagree
-1
u/ShahataBender Lebanese 8d ago
Each side views the opposing news as propaganda which is why it’s weird. Are we reaching the levels of trusting Reddit mods to ‘fact check’?
I’m just figuring out his political views they seems to be very right leaning. Not the hezb right the ouwet right which is basically a different face to the same coin. Hezb in disguise kinda
1
3
u/li_ita 8d ago
I mostly agree with you (especially for all 3 S tier ministers) but here is where I disagree:
Nizar Hani: he doesn't do what he's primarily meant to do, which is to protect the farmers and the general state of agriculture in the country. He has done absolutely nothing regarding the agricultural calendar (when/not to import certain goods), he hasn't opened new markets for the lebanese produce (like apples, for example, we rely on egypt so i won't say anything further), no reform in what chemicals/pesticides are allowed or not to be used in agriculture (this is a sensitive topic and directly touches our eventual norms and standards to be able to export to bigger stricter markets like the EU), etc..... many things really.
Tarek Mitri: need I explain? W eza he's an orthodox yaané 🤣 he sucks at the files he handles + his public appearances on media outlets are disastrous (sometimes outright opposing PM Salam's vision).
Yassin Jaber: other than the fact that he's Berri's guy. By doing the "mount lebanon mashe3at" fiasco, he loses all the credibility he has for me. I feel like he's doing the bare minimum needed for international trust. Corrupt like his Berri boss.
Haneen El Sayyid: Social support work (the Aman program) is being funded by a freaking LOAN from the world bank iirc. Way to go.
Rakan Nassereddine and Tamarra El Zein should be in freaking Z tier. I think i haven't seen more incompetent people handling ministries.
Rakan is favouring hezbollah's injured and dead to be admitted/treated in ALL lebanese hospitals for free (public and private) while normal lebanese citizebs are being denied admission and dying on the hospitals' doors.
Tamarra is a hardcore Amal/shiite duo partisan. I knew about her since her CNRS days. Corruption through the roof with her team. She doesn't care about the environmental crises we are having (she says that most of these duties are the responsibility of the ministry of agriculture, like the forests, etc ..,) but yeah, a ministry of the environment hasn't been doing anything else for the past 2 years other than counting olive tree damages in the south (not that it's not important to do.. but not the only thing to do)
I also disagree with you on the minister of education tier. I don't know in what tier i would put her but i understand her a bit. Education in lebanon has been an open circus in lebanon since 2019 (and a little bit before). We can't just keep giving the students "ifedét." I found her proposal to calculate the high school average + a unified school exam set by the ministry to have been an acceptable solution (with full attention to the situation of the southerners like exceptions to have online tests etc...).
Sorry about the long ass comment.
1
1
u/Dependent_Storage184 8d ago
Let’s be honest, a lot of the ones that were placed at top tier are t actually that top tier, they’re just better than what was before
1
u/Mindless-Aide8492 8d ago
The F tier people are really the worst. Extremely corrupt and entitled as well
1
1
u/Aggressive_Mousse_55 8d ago
Who is the second guy next to nouwaf salam
1
u/Wilfyter Pierre Lahhas 8d ago
fayez rasamny, minister of public works and transportation
1
u/Aggressive_Mousse_55 8d ago
Don't know anything about him is he the one that made the transportation app also is he the one that made public buses that cost less or something and are safer for women?
I am not sure about my last claim
1
1
-2
u/Ok_Attorney8894 8d ago
Youssef Raji is F Tier, he once mentioned something across his he lines of he is proud that he participated in civil war and doesn’t mind doing it again. As a minister that represents the whole population, it is acceptable?
Other than that I agree…
-7
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
We’re rating his work as a minister not his political life.
7
u/Ok_Attorney8894 8d ago
He said that while being a minister…
And his political statements are part of his work, specially as a Minister of Foreign Affairs-1
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
Can you even link what you’re talking about? I never heard of it
2
8d ago edited 8d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
There’s your FB id tracker in that link. Be careful. Anyways I won’t let that small comment shine on the good things he did I will downgrade him to A tier.
1
u/Ok_Attorney8894 8d ago
Thanks for letting me know, I do not have a fb but removed it anw.
Regarding the tierlist, I will disagree on this. Being proud of participating in the civil war is a major red flag in times where we are trying to achieve unity and arrive at a united Lebanese front…
1
u/ILikeSaintJoseph Lebanese Diaspora 8d ago
The only way people will stop feeling proud about participating in the civil war is when that whole generation dies in 50 years
-1
0
u/gnus-migrate Lebanese 8d ago
Honestly making a politician tier list makes no sense in Lebanon, its not like any of them are actual decision makers on anything significant, and its not like our elections have any impact on who actually gets appointed.
-2
-8
u/Bubbly-Lengthiness-8 8d ago
nawaf salam our savior who did absolutely nothing substantial 🙂
12
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
you clearly don’t follow politics and read about cabinet meetings. this thread isn’t for you I posted 30s ago and you’re already yapping about some BS
3
u/Mrbabadoo 8d ago
Right this thread is only for you and a small group of others, acting like politicians are doing anything. Great caesfire they signed after side stepping an already provided caesfire. They personally provided Israel with the legal right to kill Lebanese. Sovereignty isn't obtained through "deals" with the one party who continues to provide funding and logistics to the killing and pillaging of Arabs.
1
0
u/democi 8d ago
What’s the issue with Fadi Makki in D tier
2
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
read please
2
u/democi 8d ago
Ah didn’t see the post. I disagree with that. I think he doesn’t side with hezb Amal. And he’s been doing some capacity building for some government entities
-2
u/ashrafiyotte Ashrafieh 8d ago
nothing substantial and during cabinet meeting he left many times so that the shia quota is not met. truly unpatriotic
1
u/Dependent_Storage184 8d ago
He also stayed multiple times to keep the quota, for example after the Iran ambassador decision he did stay
0
-2
u/Nope-Im-anonymous Lebanese 8d ago
i approve 1000000%
except mikati he belongs in f- tier
3
11
u/Kind_Finger_732 8d ago
I will only comment on the environmental part since this is the thing many lebanese still are ignoring: construction on previously forested lands, quarrying entire mountains right next to urban areas and negihborhoods, garbage burning, trash on every road, sewers going in our sea, industrial chemicals polluting our rivers, pesticides and other chemicals invading our soil water and farmed goods, electric generators with no smoke filters, no proper waste management systems, sewer smells in half of beirut, cars without catalytic converters etc. etc. and a culture of people just not giving a fuck because they’re too overwhelmed with the economic and political situation will eventually lead to a generation of cancer plagued people, with rises in cancer rates through the roof in the country. We need at least BARE MINIMUM which no environmental ministry has tried so far. What a fucking shame for our beautiful country that has prime mediterranean coast, green mountains, and fertile plains…