DAMASCUS — Syria said Wednesday a new government would take over next month from the interim cabinet formed following Bashar Assad’s overthrow, and announced a preparatory body for a national dialogue conference.
The new authorities need to rebuild Syria’s institutions after more than 50 years of Assad family rule and revive an economy smashed by nearly 14 years of war.
Weighed down by Assad-era sanctions, the government will also need to persuade Western capitals that the Islamist-led rebels who seized power have abandoned their jihadist origins, amid concerns for minorities in the multi-ethnic, multi-confessional country.
“The government that will be launched March 1 will represent the Syrian people as much as possible and take its diversity into account,” Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani said on the sidelines of the World Governments Summit in the United Arab Emirates.
The Syrian people will be “partners in change”, he said, adding that “changes and adjustments we made over the past two months on the political roadmap were derived and inspired by consultations with the diaspora and civil society”.
A caretaker government headed by Mohammad al-Bashir is steering the country until March 1.
Last month Sharaa, leader of Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) which spearheaded Assad’s overthrow, was appointed interim president, and the new authorities are set to form a transitional legislature.
The Assad-era parliament has been dissolved, along with the Baath party which ruled Syria for decades. Sharaa has said organising elections could take up to five years.
Sharaa’s office announced Wednesday the formation of a seven-member preparatory committee for a national dialogue conference “to meet the requirements of this historic phase and guarantee the aspirations of the Syrian people”.
Former exiled opposition
The committee includes two women, according to the decree, and its work will end “once the conference’s final declaration is issued”.
No date was set for the event.
Sharaa said last month the national dialogue would be “a direct platform for discussions, to listen to different points of view on our future political programme”, in a country wracked by divisions.
Activists have expressed concern about the rights and representation of women, while officials have insisted they will be a part of the new Syria.
On Tuesday, the presidency said Syria’s main civilian opposition bodies, formerly in exile, had transferred files they had been handling to Damascus amid efforts to “dissolve” civilian and military institutions formed during the conflict.
Sharaa met in Damascus with the head of the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) Bader Jamous and the head of the National Coalition Hadi Albahra.
Responding to a question about whether the move meant the dissolution of the bodies, Jamous told AFP: “Yes, but there are legal procedures that need to be worked out and that will take some time”.
Jamous said members of the commission and affiliated experts will be “part of the Syrian state and support its construction”.
The Istanbul-based Coalition was established in November 2012 after opposition groups and figures met in Qatar.
The Coalition is the main component of the SNC, which emerged after a meeting in Riyadh in 2015, and represented the Syrian opposition during UN-sponsored talks with the Assad government in Geneva that failed to produce any results.
HTS and other armed factions have officially been dissolved, with their fighters to be integrated into a future national force.
