Rift inversion plays a significant role in accommodating shortening in fold-thrust belts but is often obscured by post-rift salt, complicating deformation sequences and masking underlying sub-salt inversion structures. This study uses four scaled analog models with Particle Image Velocimetry to investigate the influence of post-rift salt on the strain evolution and final structural geometry of sub-salt rift inversion. Results demonstrate that post-rift salt decouples deformation, facilitating early thin-skinned shortening in the supra-salt cover which precedes and delays inversion of the underlying sub-salt rift basin. Rift inversion initiates with minor basin uplift reflecting early strain localization, potentially guiding both supra-salt thin-skinned thrust nucleation and the localization of subsequent sub-salt thrusts. Subsequent deformation is accommodated primarily by new, low-angle (12 degrees-22 degrees) thrusts (e.g., footwall shortcuts) cutting across rift basins, favored by the frictional lock-up of steep (58 degrees-81 degrees) pre-existing normal faults. This process generates characteristic "harpoon" geometries in both single and multiple basin inversion settings, characterized by steep normal faults truncated by low-angle footwall shortcut thrusts and associated hanging-wall anticlines, mirroring structures observed in the Outer Western Carpathians and Kalpin fold-and-thrust belts. These findings highlight the crucial role of post-rift salt in controlling sub-salt rift inversion kinematics and provide a framework for interpreting inversion styles in deep layers where seismic imaging is often ambiguous.