Syria sees first government reshuffle since al-Assad’s ouster: State media

Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has announced a series of government changes, including replacing his brother as head of the presidential office, the state news agency SANA reports.

Al-Sharaa appointed former Homs Governor Abdul Rahman Badreddine al-Aama as secretary-general for the presidency. The post was previously held by al-Sharaa’s brother Maher, an appointment that had drawn accusations of nepotism.

Saturday’s reshuffle was the first since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad and comes about a year and a half into the five-year transitional period set in Syria’s constitutional declaration.

According to the report, presidential decrees appointed Khaled Zaarour as information minister, replacing Hamza Mustafa, who was moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bassel Sweidan, who heads a committee tasked with reaching settlements with business tycoons linked to the Assad-era elite, as agriculture minister.

Al-Sharaa also replaced governors in the provinces of Homs, Quneitra and Deir Az Zor, the eastern province where most of Syria’s oilfields are located.

No official reason was given for the changes, but Al Jazeera’s Resul Sardar Atas has previously reported that after al-Sharaa announced his new government in March last year, his choice of officials was criticised.

“People had criticised the president that he had previously appointed all of his close friends to all of the ministerial positions,” Atas said.

In recent months, protests and social media campaigns have emerged due to worsening economic conditions and what critics described as poor governance, suggesting another reason for al-Sharaa’s cabinet reshuffle.

Besides a government reshuffle, al-Sharaa’s government since last month has begun trials of Assad-era officials after facing criticism over delays in launching a promised transitional justice process following Syria’s 14-year civil war, in which an estimated half a million people were killed.

On April 26, trial proceedings opened in Damascus for Atef Najib, the former head of political security in southern Syria’s Deraa province.

He has been accused of overseeing a violent crackdown on protesters there during the 2011 uprising, which set off the civil war, and faces charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people”, according to SANA.

Najib, who is a cousin of al-Assad, was the sole defendant in court for the preparatory session of the trial, which is set to continue this month.

Charged in absentia are al-Assad and his brother Maher, former commander of the Syrian military’s 4th Armoured Division. Along with other former high-ranking security officials also charged in absentia, they are accused of killings, torture, extortion and drug trafficking.