KEY POINTS
- Mohammad al-Bashir was named head of Syria’s transitional government following the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad.
- The UN envoy for Syria called for an end to Israel’s airstrikes on Syria.
- Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey strongly condemned Israel’s military incursions into the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights.
- Global calls for respecting Syria’s territorial integrity and sovereignty have intensified.
DAMASCUS, Syria: The alliance of Syrian groups now in power in Damascus appointed Mohammad al-Bashir as head of a transitional government that will be in place until March 1, state media reported on Tuesday.
On Sunday, the alliance led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took control of the capital Damascus in a lightning offensive, toppling president Bashar al-Assad who left the country.
“The general command has tasked us with running the transitional government until March 1,” said a statement attributed to Bashir on state television’s Telegram account, referring to him as “the new Syrian prime minister”.
Before being tapped for the role, he had been head of the Salvation Government in northwest Syria and previously held the role of its development minister.
Also Tuesday, a source within the political affairs department of the Salvation Government told AFP Bashir would head the transitional government.
The Salvation Government, with its own ministries, departments, judicial and security authorities, was set up in the Idlib bastion in 2017 to assist people in the area cut off from government services.
It has since begun rolling out assistance in Aleppo, the first major city to fall from government hands after the armed groups began their offensive.
HTS Chief Discusses Transfer of Power with Outgoing PM
Syrian group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader Ahmed al-Sharaa on Monday met with outgoing Syrian prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali and discussed the “transfer of power”, the alliance said, a day after toppling president Bashar al-Assad.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, met Jalali “to coordinate a transfer of power that guarantees the provision of services” to Syria’s people, said a statement posted on the alliance’s Telegram channels.
HTS had been administering swathes of Idlib province and parts of neighbouring areas until November 27, when along with allied groups it launched a lightning offensive, seizing government-held territory and capturing Damascus on Sunday.
In the video, al-Sharaa was heard telling the outgoing prime minister that although “Idlib is a small region lacking resources”, authorities there “have a very high-level of experience after starting with nothing”.
Jalali said Sunday he was ready to “cooperate” with any leadership chosen by the people and for any handover process.
Who is Mohammed al-Bashir?
Bashir has been serving as the prime minister of the Syrian Salvation Government since January 13 this year.
The 41-year-old is a trained engineer by profession who also has a degree in Sharia law from the university in Idlib.
Following the outbreak of the civil war in Syria in 2011, he became the director of an educational institution which provided education to children affected by the conflict.
Before becoming prime minister of the Salvation Government in January 2024, he worked for the group’s ministry responsible for development and humanitarian aid.
UN Says Israel Bombardment of Syria ‘Must Stop’
The UN special envoy for Syria called Tuesday on Israel to halt its military movements and bombardments in Syria, after a war monitor reported 300 air strikes since the fall of president Bashar al-Assad’s government.
Assad fled Syria as an alliance of opposition groups swept into the capital Damascus, ending five decades of rule by the al-Assad family on Sunday.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, the leader who headed the offensive that forced Assad out, has begun talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes.
His group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham along with other groups led the offensive against Assad’s government.
Syria’s civil war killed 500,000 people and forced half the country to flee their homes, millions of them finding refuge abroad.
The country now faces profound uncertainty after the collapse of al-Assad family’s five-decade government.
Israel has conducted many strikes on Syria since the civil war began in 2011.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had recorded more than 300 Israeli strikes since Assad was ousted.
Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy for Syria, on Tuesday called on Israel to stop.
“We are continuing to see Israeli movements and bombardments into Syrian territory. This needs to stop. This is extremely important,” he told reporters in Geneva.
On Monday, Israel said it had struck “remaining chemical weapons or long-range missiles and rockets”.
The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources around Syria, said Israeli strikes had “destroyed the most important military sites in Syria”.
The group said the strikes targeted weapons depots, navy vessels and a defence research centre.
With Syria in flux, AFP journalists in Damascus were unable to obtain official comment from the Syrian side on the strikes though they saw the defence research centre had been destroyed.
In Latakia on the coast, smoke and fire was still rising Tuesday morning from the wreckage of navy vessels equipped with machine guns and rocket launchers, half sunken in the water, AFP reported.
Israel, which borders Syria, also sent troops into a buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Assad’s fall, in what Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described as a “limited and temporary step” for “security reasons”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel for almost 60 years, would perpetually remain part of Israel.
Israel’s backer the United States said the incursion must be “temporary”, after the United Nations said Israel was violating a 1974 deal.
The Israeli military on Tuesday denied reports that its tanks were advancing towards Damascus, insisting that its forces were stationed within the buffer zone.
The alliance of Syria’s opposition groups launched their offensive on November 27, the same day a ceasefire took effect in the Israel-Hezbollah war.
Condemnation of Israeli Actions
Pakistan has condemned the Israeli aggression against Syria and its illegal seizure of Syrian territory.
The Foreign Ministry in a statement on Tuesday warned that this assault on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria is a grave breach of international law.
President Bashar al-Assad fled Syria as an alliance of opposition groups swept into the capital Damascus, ending five decades of rule by his family on Sunday.
“Israel’s provocative actions are a dangerous development in an already volatile region. Israel has continued to blatantly defy international law and violate UN Security Council Resolutions,” the statement issued by the Pakistani foreign ministry noted.
Israel, which borders Syria, has sent troops into a buffer zone east of the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights after Assad’s fall, in what Foreign Minister Gideon Saar described as a “limited and temporary step” for “security reasons”.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel for almost 60 years, would perpetually remain part of Israel.
Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry expressed full support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria and rejected Israeli acquisition of territory by force.
“We reaffirm our support for the UN Security Council Resolution 497, which declares Israeli annexation of the Golan Heights “null and void and without international legal effect,” the Foreign Ministry said.
It urged the international community, including the United Nations Security Council, to take immediate and decisive steps to end Israeli impunity, its repeated violations of international law, and aggression against countries of the region.
Saudi Arabia on Monday said that Israel’s action to seize Syrian areas in an UN-patrolled buffer zone in the Golan Heights and its attacks on Syrian territory confirm continued Israeli violation of international law.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA), cited a statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that the assaults carried out by the Israeli occupation government, including the seizure of the buffer zone in the Golan Heights and the targeting of Syrian territories by Israeli occupation forces, affirm Israel’s continued violation of international law and its determination to undermine opportunities for Syria to restore its security, stability, and territorial integrity.
The statement further said, “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emphasizes the necessity for the international community to condemn these Israeli violations, reaffirm respect for Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and acknowledge that the Golan Heights is occupied Arab Syrian Arab land.”
The UN has warned that Israeli military activity along the Golan Heights buffer zone in Syria “would constitute a violation” of a 1974 pact on disengagement between Syria and Israel.
“The peacekeepers at (the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force, or UNDOF) informed the Israeli counterparts that these acts would constitute a violation of the 1974 disengagement agreement, that there should be no military forces or activities in the area of separation,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.
Dujarric further said that UNDOF can also confirm that the Israeli military personnel “entered the area of separation and have been moving within that region where they remain in at least three locations throughout the area of separation.
Turkey on Tuesday accused Israel of an “occupying mentality” after its forces entered a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the Golan Heights.
“We strongly condemn Israel’s entry into the separation zone between Israel and Syria,” a foreign ministry statement said, reiterating support for Syria’s “sovereignty, political unity and territorial integrity”.
“In this sensitive period, when the possibility of achieving the peace and stability the Syrian people have desired for many years has emerged, Israel is once again displaying its occupying mentality.”
