(Reuters) – Syria’s new rulers have named a foreign minister, the official Syrian news agency (SANA) said on Saturday, as they seek to build international relations two weeks after Bashar al-Assad was overthrown.
The ruling General Command appointed Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes 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 interacted with foreign delegations since taking power, including receiving the UN envoy for Syria and senior US diplomats.
Sharaa has expressed his willingness to collaborate diplomatically with international envoys, saying that his main objective is reconstruction and achieving economic development. He has said he is not interested in getting involved in any new conflict.
The United States, other Western powers and many Syrians were glad to see rebel groups led by Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrow Assad, but it is unclear whether the Islamist group will impose strict Islamic rule or show flexibility and will move towards democracy. HTS was part of Al Qaeda until Sharaa severed ties with it in 2016.
Syrian rebels took control of 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 Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, installed a three-month interim government that had been ruling a rebel enclave in Idlib province in northwestern Syria.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying it had been tasked by Al Qaeda in Iraq to overthrow Assad’s government and establish Islamic Sharia law in Syria. U.S. officials said Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the largest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.