Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa announced a transition government on Saturday (29), appointing 23 ministers in an enlarged office seen as an important milestone in the transition from decades of Assad family government and to improve Syria’s ties with the West.
Syria’s new Suni -Sunni authorities are under pressure from the West and the Arab countries to form a government that is more inclusive of the country’s various ethnic and religious communities.
This pressure increased after-the minority sect from which the deposed leader Bashar al-Assad comes-in violence along the west coast of Syria this month.
The cabinet includes Yarub Badr, an Alauita who was appointed Minister of Transport, while Amgad Badr, who belongs to the Drusa community, will lead the Ministry of Agriculture.
Hind Kabawat, a Christian woman and part of the opposition before Assad who worked for interreligious tolerance and female empowerment, was named Minister of Social Affairs and Work.
Mohammed Yosr Bernieh was appointed finance minister.
The ruler kept Murhaf Abu Qasra and Asaad Al-Shibani, who were already serving as Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, respectively, in the previous interim office who led Syria since Assad was overthrown in December by an offensive lightning rebel.
Sharaa also said she first established a sports ministry and another for emergencies, with the head of a rescue group known as white helmets, Raed al-Saleh, appointed emergency minister.
In January, Sharaa was appointed interim president and promised to form an inclusive transition government that would build public institutions destroyed from Syria and governed the country to the elections, which he said could take up to five years to be held.
The government will not have a prime minister, with Sharaa expected to lead the executive branch.
Earlier this month, Syria issued a constitutional statement designed to serve as the basis for the interim period led by Sharaa. The statement has maintained a central role for Islamic law and provides for women’s rights and freedom of expression.
