TelegramThe prime minister of Syria’s new transitional government has said it is time for people to “enjoy stability and calm” following the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad.
Mohammed al-Bashir, the former head of the rebel administration in the northwest, spoke to Al Jazeera after being tasked with ruling until March 2025 by the Islamist militant group Hayat Tahir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies.
Bashir chaired a meeting in Damascus on Tuesday attended by members of his new government and members of Assad’s former cabinet to discuss the transfer of portfolios and institutions.
It came as the UN envoy for Syria said the rebels must turn their “good messages” into practice on the ground.
The US secretary of state, meanwhile, said Washington would recognize and fully support a future Syrian government as long as it emerged from a credible, inclusive process that respected minorities.
In 2011, Assad brutally crushed a peaceful pro-democracy uprising, sparking a devastating civil war in which more than half a million people have been killed and another 12 million forced to flee their homes.
Before this week, Mohammed al-Bashir was little known outside areas dominated by HTS in the northwestern provinces of Idlib and Aleppo.
According to his CV, he trained as an electrical engineer and worked at gasworks before the start of the civil war in 2011.
In January, Bashir was named prime minister of the Salvation Government (SG), which HTS created to run the territory under its control.
The SG functioned as a state with ministries, local departments, judicial and security authorities, while maintaining a religious council governed by Islamic law.
About four million people, many of them displaced from other parts of the country, lived under its rule.
When institutions stopped functioning in Aleppo after HTS and its allies captured the city earlier this month at the start of their blitzkrieg, the SG stepped in to restore public services.
Technicians reportedly helped repair local electricity and telecommunications networks, security forces patrolled streets, doctors volunteered at hospitals and charities distributed bread.
“It is true that Idlib is a small region that lacks resources, but they [SG officials] have a very high level of experience after starting with nothing,” HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani was heard telling Assad’s former prime minister, Mohammed al-Jalali, in a video of a meeting in Damascus on Monday.
“We will benefit from your experiences. We certainly will not ignore you,” he added.
On Tuesday, Bashir was pictured presiding over a meeting between former SG ministers and ministers who served under Jalali. He sat in front of the Syrian opposition and HTS flags.
“[We] invited members from the old government and some directors from the administration in Idlib and its surrounding areas to facilitate all the necessary work for the next two months until we have a constitutional system to be able to serve the Syrian people,” Bashir told Al Jazeera afterwards.
“We had other meetings to restart the institutions to be able to serve our people in Syria,” he added.
Meanwhile, life appeared to be slowly returning to normal in the capital Damascus after two days of near-shutdown.
There were many pedestrians and cars out on the streets, and some shops and restaurants were open.
People also swept away spent shell casings that littered the ground around the central Umayyad Square, where many rebel fighters fired into the air as crowds celebrated the end of Assad’s 24-year rule.
A Muslim cleric there told the BBC that Syrians were looking to the future and wanted a peaceful and united country.
“We want to establish a nation built on principles of nationalism, justice and the rule of law, a technocratic state where institutions are respected and equal opportunities are guaranteed for all,” said Sheikh Abdul Rahman al-Kouky.
UN special envoy Geir Pedersen told reporters in Geneva the transition was necessary to ensure “the representation of the widest possible spectrum of Syrian society and the Syrian parties”.
“If this does not happen, then we risk new conflict,” he warned.
Pedersen said the designation of HTS as a terrorist organization by the UN, US, UK and other countries would be a “complicating factor” in efforts to find a way forward.
HTS’s predecessor, al-Nusra Front, pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2013. But three years later, it formally cut ties with the jihadist group.
“The reality is so far that HTS and also the other armed groups have sent good messages to the Syrian people… about unity, about inclusiveness,” Pedersen noted.
“We also gave seen… calming things on the ground” in Aleppo and Hama, another major city captured last week, he added.
He said the most important test would be how the transition arrangements in Damascus were organized and implemented.
“If they are truly inclusive of all the different groups and all the communities in Syria… then there is an opportunity for a new beginning.”
“And then I think the international community will be watching [terrorist] listing of HTS again,” he added.
Later, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken actually set out a series of conditions which, if met, would see Syria enjoy Washington’s full recognition.
“It is imperative that all actors involved protect civilians; respect human rights, especially for vulnerable minorities; preserve the state’s institutions, its services to help meet the needs of Syrians; and build towards inclusive governance,” he said.
“Statements from rebel leaders to these ends are most welcome, but of course the real measure of their commitment is not just what they say, but what they do.”