TelegramThe prime minister of Syria’s new transitional government has said it is time for people to “enjoy stability and peace” after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the northwest, was speaking to Al Jazeera after being tasked with governing until March 2025 by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies.
Bashir chaired a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday attended by his new government and members of Assad’s former cabinet to discuss the transfer of departments and institutions.
It came as the UN envoy for Syria said the rebels must implement their “good messages” on the ground.
Meanwhile, the US secretary of state said Washington would recognize and fully support a future Syrian government as long as it emerges from a credible, inclusive process that respects minorities.
In 2011, Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a devastating civil war that killed more than half a million people and displaced 12 million others.
Before this week, Muhammad al-Bashir was little known outside HTS-held areas in the northwestern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.
According to his CV, he trained as an electrical engineer and worked in gas plants before the civil war broke out in 2011.
In January, Bashir was appointed prime minister of the Salvation Government (SG), which HTS established to govern the territory it controlled.
The SG functioned like a state, with ministries, local departments, judicial and security authorities, maintaining a religious council under Islamic law.
About four million people, many displaced from other parts of the country, lived under his rule.
SG stepped in to restore public services when institutions stopped working in Aleppo after HTS and its allies seized the city earlier this month following the launch of a lightning operation.
Technicians reportedly helped repair local electricity and telecommunications networks, security forces patrolled the streets, medics volunteered at hospitals, and charities distributed bread.
“It’s true that Idlib is a small region that lacks resources, but that [SG officials] You have a very high level of experience after starting from nothing,” HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani was heard telling former Assad prime minister Mohammad al-Jalali in a video of a meeting in Damascus on Monday.
“We will benefit from your experiences. We will certainly not ignore you,” he added.
On Tuesday, Bashir was shown presiding over a meeting of former SG ministers and ministers who worked under Jalali. He was sitting in front of the Syrian opposition and HTS flags.
“[We] Invited members of the old regime and some directors of administration in Idlib and surrounding areas to facilitate all the necessary work for the next two months until we have a constitutional system that serves the Syrian people. Can,” Bashir told Al. After that, the island.
“We have held other meetings to restart institutions to serve our people in Syria,” he added.
Meanwhile, life is slowly returning to normal in the capital Damascus after nearly two days of lockdown.
There were many pedestrians and cars on the streets and some shops and restaurants were open.
People were also cleaning up bullet casings that littered the ground around the central Umayyad Square, where many rebel fighters fired into the air as crowds celebrated the end of Assad’s 24-year rule.
A Muslim scholar there told the BBC that Syrians are looking to the future and want a peaceful and united country.
“We want to establish a nation based on the principles of nationalism, justice and the rule of law, a technocratic state where institutions are respected, and equal opportunities are guaranteed for all,” said Sheikh Abdul Rahman Al Kouki. Abdul Rahman Al Kouki said.
UN Special Envoy Geir Pedersen told reporters in Geneva that the transition was needed to ensure “the widest possible representation of Syrian society and Syrian parties”.
He warned that if this is not happening, then we are at risk of a new conflict.
Pedersen said the designation of HTS as a terrorist organization by the United Nations, the United States, Britain and other countries would be a “complicating factor” in efforts to move forward.
HTS’s predecessor, the Nusra Front, pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2013. But three years later, he officially cut ties with the jihadist group.
“The reality so far is that HTS and other armed groups are sending good messages of … unity, inclusiveness to the Syrian people,” Pedersen noted.
“We also saw reassuring things on the ground,” he added, in Aleppo and Hama, another major city that was captured last week.
He said the most important test would be how the transitional arrangements were organized and implemented in Damascus.
“If they are really including all the different groups and all the communities in Syria… then there is the possibility of a new beginning.”
“And then I’m sure the international community will consider it. [terrorist] HTS relist,” he added.
Later, the US Secretary of State Anthony Blanken presented a number of practical conditions which, if fulfilled, would give Washington full recognition of Syria.
“It is imperative that all actors involved protect civilians; respect human rights, particularly those of vulnerable minorities; support the state’s institutions and its services to meet Syria’s needs,” he said. for; and to build towards inclusive governance,” he said.
Statements by rebel leaders for these purposes are welcome, but of course, the real measure of their commitment is not just what they say but what they do.