Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa announced a transitional government on Saturday, appointing 23 ministers in a broadened cabinet seen as a key milestone in the transition from decades of Assad family rule and to improving Syria’s ties with the West.
Syria’s new Sunni Islamist-led authorities 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 toppled leader Bashar Assad hails — in violence along Syria’s western coast this month.
The cabinet included Yarub Badr, an Alawite who was named transportation minister, while Amgad Badr, who belongs to the Druze community, will lead the agriculture ministry.
Hind Kabawat, a Christian woman and part of the previous opposition to Assad who worked for interfaith tolerance and women’s empowerment, was appointed as social affairs and labor minister.
Mohammed Yosr Bernieh was named finance minister.
It kept Murhaf Abu Qasra and Asaad Al-Shibani, who were already serving as defense and foreign ministers respectively in the previous caretaker cabinet that has governed Syria since Assad was toppled in December by a lightning rebel offensive.
Sharaa also said he established for the first time a ministry for sports and another for emergencies, with the head of a rescue group known as the White Helmets, Raed Al-Saleh, appointed as the minister of emergencies.
In January, Sharaa was named as interim president and 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.
The government will not have a prime minister, with Sharaa expected to lead the executive branch.
Earlier this month, Syria issued a constitutional declaration, designed to serve as the foundation for the interim period led by Sharaa. The declaration kept a central role for Islamic law and guaranteed women’s rights and freedom of expression.
Syria’s president Al-Sharaa forms new transitional government
https://arab.news/z2thq
Syria’s president Al-Sharaa forms new transitional government
- The cabinet included Yarub Badr, an Alawite who was named transportation minister, while Amgad Badr, who belongs to the Druze community, will lead the agriculture ministry
Trump asks Netanyahu to change West Bank policy
- US President, his team raise settler violence, financial instability of PA, Israeli settlements’ expansion
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump and his top advisers asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to change Israel’s policies in the occupied West Bank during their meeting according to a US official and another source, both with direct knowledge, Axios said.
Home to 2.7 million Palestinians, the West Bank has long been at the heart of plans for a future Palestinian state alongside Israel.
According to the US official, the White House thinks a violent escalation in the West Bank would undermine efforts to implement the Gaza peace agreement and prevent the expansion of the Abraham Accords before the end of Trump’s term.
Trump and his team expressed concern about the situation in the West Bank and asked Netanyahu to avoid provocative steps and “calm things down,” the sources said.
The president and his team raised settler violence against Palestinian civilians, the financial instability of the Palestinian Authority, and Israeli settlements expansion, the sources said.
The US message was that changing course in the West Bank is critical to repair Israel’s relations with European countries and, hopefully, expand the Abraham Accords. “Netanyahu spoke very strongly against settler violence and said he is going to take more action,” the source with knowledge said.
