Syria transitional govt announced amid bid to unify factions

The lineup of Syria’s transitional government was announced on Thursday, as former rebels stressed the need for the country to remain united following the toppling of the Assad regime.

It came days after Mohammad al-Bashir was picked to lead the government. Bashir had been the head of the ‘Salvation Government’ in Idlib, the northwestern province that had been under rebel control for years.

A lighting rebel offensive led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime on Sunday in less than two weeks, bringing an end to the five-decade Ba’athist rule of Syria.

The new government is expected to oversee a transitional phase lasting until March next year, facing numerous challenges around uniting and bring stability to a deeply divided country ravaged from over 13 years of war.

On Wednesday, HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa – former known by his nom de guerre, Abu Muhammad al-Jolani – announced that the former Syrian constitution would be suspended and the regime’s security forces would be dissolved. 

“We hope the ministers of the deposed regime will assist their honourable successors during the transitional phase, especially in handing over files, to ensure continuity of services,” Bashir said during a televised address.

Some of the new names in government include Muhammad Abdul Rahman, Shadi Muhammad al-Wisi, Basil Abdul Aziz, and Muhammad Yaqoub al-Omar, who will head the interior, justice, economy and media portfolios respectively.

Others named were Muhammad Taha al-Ahmad, Mazen Muhammad Dakhan, Housam Hajj Hussein, and Nazir Muhammad al-Qadri, who will head the agriculture, health, religious endowments, and education portfolios respectively.

No region outside government control

The spokesman for the HTS-run department of political affairs, Obaida Arnaout, stressed the need for Syria to remain united and for no part of it to remain outside the control of the new government.

“We do not accept that any part of the country is out of the control of the Damascus government,” Aranout told Al Araby TV.

He added that HTS has put behind it the mentality of acting as a militant organisation, in order to take on the role of governing Syria.

“We are focusing on returning services as quickly as possible throughout all Syrian regions,” he said, as life slowly returns to normal in the country.

There are concerns that the conflict in Syria could now shift to more infighting among rival groups.

The war-ravaged nation now remains under the control of different militant factions, with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces controlling much of the northeast, Druze militias in the south, and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army rebels near the border with Turkey.

The multi-faceted conflict, which erupted in 2011 after Assad forces brutally cracked down on pro-democracy protests, has seen the involvement of several external powers which have maintained a military presence in Syria, including the US, Turkey, and Russia.

Iran, which along with Russia backed the Assad before his regime was toppled, has pulled out its forces.

In a bid to unify factions, Sharaa met in Damascus on Wednesday with Ahmed al-Awdah, commander of the Eighth Brigade from southern Syria’s Daraa province. That group was formed by the Russians, and was forcefully reconciled with the ousted regime in 2018, but allowed to keep some of its light weapons.

A statement said the meeting was an important step towards “unifying the efforts of the revolutionary forces under unified central leadership.”

Rebels in Daraa rose up against Assad’s forces during the offensive, quickly capturing regions in southern Syria as HTS and other groups advanced from the north, before taking the seat of government in Damascus.

The SDF-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria also said in a statement that it decided to raise the new Syrian flag on all public buildings.

US sends positive signals

Separately, the US welcomed statements by HTS commander Ahmed al-Sharaa regarding the securing of chemical weapons in Syria. The former regime had carried out a number of chemical attacks on civilians in rebel-held areas, and in recent days Israel said it destroyed chemical and weapons storages in Syria.

The US had previously said HTS, who Washington has designated a terrorist group, needs to put its promises of protecting Syria’s minorities into action.

A Pentagon spokesman said the US Department of Defence has means of communicating with HTS through back channels, adding that Washington’s priority was to protect its remaining troops in Syria and completely defeat the Islamic State (IS) group.

IS remnants, defeated years ago, still operate in the Syrian desert and have carried out  hit-and-run attacks.

The US also urged the Syrian rebels to form a “comprehensive” government.