Syria’s new interim leader announced on Tuesday that he was taking over as interim prime minister with the support of former rebels who toppled President Bashar al-Assad three days ago.
In a brief address on state television, Mohammed al-Bashir, little known in most of Syria but previously leading an administration in a small pocket of rebel-held territory in the northwest, said he would lead an interim government until March 1.
“Today we held a cabinet meeting that included a team from the salvation government that worked in and around Idlib and the government of the ousted regime,” he said.
“The meeting was titled “transferring files and institutions to the care of the government,” he added.
Behind him were two flags: the green, black-and-white flag flown by Assad’s opponents during the civil war, and a white flag with the Islamic religious oath in black letters, commonly carried by Sunni fighters in Syria.
Banks in the Syrian capital have reopened for the first time since Assad was overthrown. Shops have also reopened, traffic has returned to the roads, construction workers have been repairing the roundabout in the center of Damascus and street cleaners have been cleaning the streets.
The number of armed men on the streets has been noticeably reduced. Two sources close to the rebels said their command had ordered fighters to withdraw from the cities, and that police and internal security forces affiliated with the main rebel group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), had been deployed there.
The steps toward normalization came despite intense airstrikes from Israel targeting Syrian army bases, whose forces have been shattered by the lightning advance of the rebels who ousted Assad.
Israel, which has sent troops across the border into a demilitarized zone inside Syria, acknowledged on Tuesday that troops had also taken up some positions outside the buffer zone, although it denied they were advancing on Damascus. The military has carried out airstrikes on bases of the now-disbanded Syrian army.
In a sign that foreigners are willing to work with HTS, the former al-Qaeda affiliate that led the rebellion against Assad and has recently stressed its break with its jihadist roots, the UN mediator for Syria has downplayed its designation as a terrorist organization.
“The reality is that HTS and other armed groups have sent good messages to the Syrian people of unity and inclusion,” Geir Pedersen told a news briefing in Geneva, Reuters reported.
