Syria’s new transitional government was sworn in Saturday nearly four months after the Assad family was removed from power and as the new authorities in Damascus work to bring back stability to the war-torn country.
The 23-member Cabinet, which is religiously and ethnically mixed, is the first in the country’s five-year transitional period and replaces the interim government that was formed shortly after Bashar Assad was removed from power in early December.
The Cabinet does not have a prime minister since according to the temporary constitution signed by interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa earlier this month, the government will have a secretary general.
The government that was announced ahead of Eid el-Fitr, the feast that marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that starts in Syria on Monday, includes new faces apart from the ministers of foreign affairs and defense. They kept the posts they held in the interim government. Syria’s new Interior Minister Anas Khattab was until recently the head of the intelligence department.
“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.
Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra said his main goal will be to build a professional army “from the people and for the people.”
The government did not include members of the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces or the autonomous civil administration in northeast Syria. Al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi signed a breakthrough deal earlier this month in Damascus on a nationwide ceasefire and the merging of the US-backed force into the Syrian army.
Among the new ministers whose names were announced late Saturday night were Hind Kabawat, a Christian activist who was opposed to Assad since the conflict began in March 2011. Kabawat was named minister of minister of social affairs and labor.
Another minister is Raed Saleh, who for years headed the Syrian Civil Defense, also known as White Helmets, and was named minister for emergency disasters. A Damascus-based Syrian Kurd, Mohammed Terko was named minister of education.
Mohammed al-Bashir, who has headed Syria’s interim government since Assad’s fall, was named minister of energy whose main mission will be to restore the electricity and oil sectors that were badly damaged during the conflict.
The new government’s main mission is to try to end the war and bring stability to the country that witnessed clashes and revenge killings earlier this month in the coastal region that is home to members of the minority Alawite sect. The violence left more than 1,000 people, mostly Alawites, dead. Assad is an Alawite.
Most of Syria’s insurgent groups now running the country are Sunnis, but the presence of members of minority sects, including one woman and members of minority sects including an Alawite, is a message from al-Sharaa to Western countries that have been demanding that women and minorities be part of Syria’s political process.
The announcement of a religiously mixed government aims to try to convince Western countries to lift crippling economic sanctions that were imposed on Assad more than a decade ago. The UN says that 90% of Syrians are below the poverty line, while millions face cuts in food aid as a result of the war.
Hours before the government was announced, the US State Department cautioned U.S. citizens of the increased possibility of attacks during the Eid el-Fitr holiday, which it said could target embassies, international organizations and Syrian public institutions in Damascus. It added that methods of attack could include, but are not limited to, individual attackers, armed gunmen, or the use of explosive devices.