The Syrians wake up with a new government
The Syrians on Sunday were digesting the announcement during the night of a guardian government that will be in power for the next five years, accepting with some resignation the continuous domination of the rebel group that seized power in December but welcoming its representation of the main ethnic minorities of the country.
The rebels that President Bashar Al-Assad overturned Since then in December they have acted as the de facto authority of Syria, appointing their leader, Ahmed al-Shara, President to Interim supervise a transition government.
Al-Shara announced the long-awaited new government on Saturday evening, swearing in 23 cabinet ministers in a ceremony that came across the last hours of the last day of the month of fasting of Ramadan before the Muslim Festival of Eid Al-Fitr.
The government seems to be a compromise designed between the meeting requires a more diversified cabinet that can combine the scarked and deeply divided country, keeping the allies of Mr. Al-Shara in the most powerful ministries.
Among the nominated of Mr. Al-Shara there are seven ministers affiliated to the provincial administration that once guided in the city of Idlib held by the rebels. But he also appointed nine independent ministers, including Tecnocrati and former activists, and included five ministers who served in the early years of the Assad regime before the country went down to the civil war.
He has appointed ministers of each of the main ethnic minorities, Kurds, Druze, Christians and Alawites, the sect of Mr. Al-Assad. Among these was the Minister of Lonely Woman, Hind Kabawat, who is a Christian, leading the Ministry of Social Affairs.
“Without a doubt some rumors will still feel excluded,” said Abdy Yeganeh, director of policies at the independent diplomat, a non -profit consultative group based in London, before the oath ceremony. But overall, he said, “there is a sense of cautious optimism with the transition to Syria, also with the announcement of the new government”.
Al-Shara had been under pressure from Western countries and members of Syrian civil society to form an inclusive government. These calls have taken on greater urgency after seventy violence broke out this month among the Alawite communities in the Coastal region of Syria.
“There is a need to expand the circle,” said Ibrahim al-Axil, an elderly member of the Middle East of Washington, DC, before the announcement, referring to the small circle of al-shara allies that had managed the transition government since December. “It is necessary to be more inclusive, from a perspective to reflect the Syrian society and from another because they need it. They cannot manage the show alone.”
Muhammad Haj Kadour Relationships contributed by Damascus.
