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31-03-2025
DAMASCUS: Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has announced a transitional government, appointing 23 ministers in a new broadened and diverse cabinet.
The cabinet announced on Saturday included Yarub Badr, an Alawite who was named transport minister, while Amgad Badr, who belongs to the Druze community, will lead the agriculture ministry.
“The formation of a new government today is a declaration of our joint will to build a new state,” al-Sharaa said in a speech marking the formation of the government.
The government will not have a prime minister, with al-Sharaa expected to lead the executive branch.
A journalist Resul Sardar, reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, said al-Sharaa was “trying to show Syrians and the world the new government is reflecting the diversity of Syria”.
“People had criticized the president that he had previously appointed all of his close friends to all of the ministerial positions (in the caretaker cabinet),” he added.
Syria’s new rulers have been under pressure from the West and Arab countries to form a government that is more inclusive of the country’s diverse ethnic and religious communities.
That pressure increased following the killings of hundreds of Alawite civilians, the minority sect from which ousted ex-President Bashar al-Assad hails in violence along Syria’s western coast this month.
Veteran opposition figure Hind Kabawat, a member of Syria’s Christian minority and longtime al-Assad opponent, was named social affairs and labour minister, the first woman to be appointed by al-Sharaa.
Mohammed Yosr Bernieh was named the finance minister, while Murhaf Abu Qasra and Asaad al-Shibani, who were serving as defence and foreign ministers respectively in the previous caretaker cabinet, were also retained.
The caretaker cabinet under al-Sharaa has governed Syria since al-Assad was toppled in December by a lightning rebel offensive. In January, al-Sharaa was named interim president, and he pledged to form an inclusive transitional government that would build up Syria’s gutted public institutions and run the country until elections, which he said could take up to five years to hold.
Al-Sharaa said he has established, for the first time, a ministry for emergency situations and disasters, with the leader of the White Helmets, the Syrian rescuers who worked in rebel-held areas, Raed al-Saleh, appointed to lead it.
Earlier this month, Syria issued a constitutional declaration, designed to serve as the foundation for the interim period led by al-Sharaa.
Two weeks ago, Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa had signed a temporary constitution that will be in force for a five-year transitional period, three months after his forces led a lightning offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Al-Sharaa said he hoped the constitutional declaration would mark the start of “a new history for Syria, where we replace oppression with justice”, as he signed the document on Thursday.
The temporary constitution retains some aspects of its predecessor, including the stipulation that the head of state has to be a Muslim and the establishment of Islamic law as the main source of jurisprudence, said Abdulhamid al-Awak, a member of the drafting committee.
Reporting from Damascus, journalist Resul Serdar said the question of introducing rules on the religious affiliation of leaders had been a “disputed issue”.
“There were lots of questions over whether that was going to be one of the articles or not, but now it’s clear that the head of state has to be a Muslim,” he said. (Int’l News Desk)
