Syria’s new interim leader announced on Tuesday he was taking charge of the country as caretaker prime minister with the backing of the former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad three days ago.
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 as PM 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.”
Little Profile
The new interim Syrian leader has little political profile beyond Idlib province, the small, largely rural region of the northwest where rebels had maintained an administration during the long years that Syria’s civil war front lines were frozen.
A Facebook page of the rebel administration says he was trained as an electrical engineer, later received a degree in sharia and law, and had held various posts over areas including education.
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.
Rebuilding Syria
Rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following 13 years of civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people. Cities have been bombed to ruin, swathes of countryside are depopulated, the rump economy has been gutted by international sanctions and millions of refugees still live in camps after one of the biggest displacements of modern times.
But the mood in Damascus remained celebratory, with refugees beginning to return to a homeland they had not seen in years. Anas Idrees, 42, a refugee since early in the war, raced from Lebanon to Syria to cheer the fall of the Assad regime.
After making arrangements for his family to follow, he ventured into the grand Hamidiyeh Souk in old Damascus to the renowned Bakdash ice cream parlour, where he ordered a large scoop of their signature mastic-infused Arabic gelato. A generous heap costs $1 per bowl, served coated in pistachios.
(with inputs from Reuters)
