Rebel leader Mohamed al-Bashir appointed caretaker Syrian PM

Mohammed al-Bashir, the rebel leader who helped bring down Bashar al-Assad’s regime, has been appointed as Syria’s interim prime minister.

According to a Reuters report, in a televised address, al-Bashir said he will stay in the post until 1 March 2025 to lead the transition government.

Al-Bashir led the rebel-backed Salvation government, which had been controlling parts of northwestern Syria and Idlib prior to the rapid offensive in the last two weeks.

The Salvation government is affiliated with the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, which played a key role in the overthrow of al-Assad’s regime after 13 years of civil war.

Assad fled Syria on Sunday, ending five decades of brutal rule by his clan.

Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the Islamist leader who headed the offensive that forced Assad out, had announced talks on a transfer of power and vowed to pursue former senior officials responsible for torture and war crimes.

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His group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, is rooted in Syria’s Al-Qaeda branch and is proscribed by many Western governments as a terrorist organisation, though it has sought to moderate its rhetoric.

The UN envoy for Syria said the groups that forced Assad to flee must transform their “good messages” into actions on the ground.

“They have been sending messages of unity, of inclusiveness,” AFP quoted Geir Pedersen as saying, adding that in Aleppo and Hama, “we have also seen… reassuring things on the ground”.

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But “what we need not to see is of course that the good statements and what we are seeing on the ground at the beginning, that this is not followed up in practice in the days and the weeks ahead of us.”

The overthrow of Assad, who maintained a complex web of prisons and detention centres to keep Syrians from straying from the Baath party line, sparked celebrations around the country and in the diaspora around the world.

The civil war that led up to it 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 a government that had run every aspect of daily life.

Jolani, who now uses his real name Ahmed al-Sharaa, vowed: “We will not hesitate to hold accountable the criminals, murderers, security and army officers involved in torturing the Syrian people.”

Jolani held talks on Monday with outgoing prime minister Mohammed al-Jalali “to coordinate a transfer of power that guarantees the provision of services” to Syria’s people, according to a statement on Telegram.

With inputs from agencies