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DAMASCUS. – Mohammed al-Bashir announced Tuesday that he has been tasked with heading a transitional government in Syria until early March 2025 following the collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad.
In a brief address on state television, Mohammed al-Bashir, a figure little known across most of Syria who previously ran an administration in a small pocket of the northwest controlled by rebels, said he would lead the interim authority until March 1.
“Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the Salvation government that was working in Idlib and its vicinity, and the government of the ousted regime,” he said.
“The meeting was under the headline of transferring the files and institutions to caretake the government.”
Behind him were two flags – the green, black and white flag flown by opponents of Assad throughout the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic oath of faith in black writing, typically flown in Syria by Sunni Islamist fighters.
In the Syrian capital, banks reopened for the first time since Assad’s overthrow. Shops were also opening up again, traffic returned to the roads, and cleaners were out sweeping the streets.
There was a notable decrease in the number of armed men on the streets. Two sources close to the rebels said their command had ordered fighters to withdraw from cities, and for police and internal security forces affiliated with the main rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Shams (HTS) to deploy there.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Washington fully supports Syria’s political transition process and wants it to lead to inclusive and non-sectarian governance.
The process must prevent Syria being used as a base for terrorism and ensure any chemical or biological weapons stocks are safely destroyed, he said in a statement.
Amid the steps towards normal life, Israeli airstrikes hit bases of the Syrian army, whose forces had melted away in the face of the rebel advance that ousted Assad.
Israel, which has sent forces across the border into a demilitarised zone inside Syria, acknowledged yesterday that troops had also taken up some positions beyond the buffer zone, though it denied they were advancing towards Damascus.
Iran has strongly condemned Israel’s “frequent aggression against Syria’s infrastructure and its occupation of other parts of the Golan,” according to a statement by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday night.
The statement was released in response to Israeli airstrikes over the past two days targeting former Syrian government military and security sites in different parts of Syria as well as Israel’s seizure of the Syrian buffer zone in the Golan Heights and neighboring lands. – Agencies
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