Syria’s new rulers have appointed a foreign minister as they seek to build international ties, two weeks after Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power, the official Syrian News Agency (SANA) said on Saturday.
SANA said the ruling General Command had named Assad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister. A source in the new administration told Reuters the move was “in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability”.
No details were immediately available about Shibani.
Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has actively engaged with foreign delegations since taking power, including hosting the Syria envoy to the UN and senior US diplomats.
Shaara has indicated his willingness to engage diplomatically with international envoys, saying his primary focus is reconstruction and achieving economic development. He has said that he has no interest in getting involved in any new conflict.
The United States, other Western powers, and many Syrians were happy to see rebel groups led by Sharjah’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrow Assad, but it is unclear whether the Islamist group would impose strict Islamic rule. Will do or show flexibility and move forward. democracy. HTS was part of al Qaeda until Shaara broke ties with it in 2016.
Syrian rebels captured Damascus on December 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Forces under the command of Shaara – known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani – installed a three-month caretaker government, ruling over a group of rebels in Syria’s northwestern province of Idlib.
Washington designated Shaara a terrorist in 2013, saying that al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s regime and establishing Islamic Sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove the $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, sparked the largest refugee crisis of modern times, and left cities bombed and economies hollowed out by global sanctions.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
