Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has announced a transitional government, appointing 23 ministers in a new broadened and diverse cabinet,
Al Jazeera reports.
The cabinet announced on Saturday included Yarub Badr, an Alawite who was named transport minister, while Amgad Badr, who belongs to the Druze community, will lead the agriculture ministry.
“The formation of a new government today is a declaration of our joint will to build a new state,” al-Sharaa said in a speech marking the formation of the government.
The government will not have a prime minister, with al-Sharaa expected to lead the executive branch.
Al Jazeera’s Resul Sardar, reporting from Beirut, Lebanon, said al-Sharaa was “trying to show Syrians and the world the new government is reflecting the diversity of Syria”.
“People had criticised the president that he had previously appointed all of his close friends to all of the ministerial positions [in the caretaker cabinet],” he added.
Syria’s new rulers have been under pressure from the West and Arab countries to form a government that is more inclusive of the country’s diverse ethnic and religious communities.
That pressure increased following the killings of hundreds of Alawite civilians – the minority sect from which ousted ex-President Bashar al-Assad hails – in violence along Syria’s western coast this month.
