The Syrians on Sunday digested an evening announcement of the caretaker government that will remain in power for the next five years, resigning and accepting the ongoing control of rebel groups that took power in December but welcomed representatives of the country’s major ethnic minorities.
The rebels that overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December have since acted as Syrian de facto authorities and have overseen the interim government to oversee their leader, Ahmed Al-Sharara.
Alshara announced the new government, which was expected late on Saturday night, and made a vow with 23 ministers at a ceremony he met early on Sunday, the last day of the Ramadan fasting month before the Muslim festival in Eid Al Fitr.
The government appears to be a researched compromise between more diverse cabinet meetings that can unite a deeply divided nation covered in war, while still keeping Alshara’s allies in the most powerful ministries.
Among Alshara’s appointees are seven ministers from the state government he once led in the Idlib city, held by rebels. However, he also appointed nine independent ministers, including five ministers among the technocrats and former activists who served in the early days of Assad’s regime before the country descended into civil war.
He appointed ministers from each of the major ethnic minorities of Al Assad’s sects: Kurdish, Druze, Christians and Arawis. Among them was the only female pastor of Hindqabawat, a Christian who headed the Ministry of Social Affairs.
“We definitely feel that some voices are still being ruled out,” said Abdy Yeganeh, policy director for Independent Diplomats, a London-based nonprofit advisory group, prior to the oath ceremony. But overall, he said, “There is a sense of cautionary optimism about the transition in Syria, including the announcement of the new government.”
Alshara was under pressure from members of Western countries and Syrian civil society to form an inclusive government. These calls sparked greater urgency after sectarian violence broke out among Alawian communities in Syria’s coastal regions this month.
“We need to expand our circles,” said Ibrahim al-Asil, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute at Washington, DC, prior to the announcement, referring to a small circle of Alshara’s small circles, which have run the government that has been in transition since December. “To reflect Syrian society and from a different perspective, they need them, so they need them, so they need them. They can’t run the show themselves.”
Muhammad Haji Kadur contributed a report from Damascus.
