Who is the interim prime minister of Syria, Mohamed al-Bashir?
Last Updated on December 13, 2024 10:36 am
Mohamed al-Bashir has become the prime minister of the country’s interim government in support of the rebels who ousted the dictatorial President Bashar al-Assad of the Middle Eastern country of Syria.
In a speech on the country’s state television on Tuesday (December 10), he announced his appointment as the prime minister of the country’s interim government. Let’s find out who this little-known rebel leader is to most Syrians.
The news agency Reuters said that the political identity of the new interim prime minister of Syria, Mohamed al-Bashir, was not found much outside Idlib province. During the rule of dictator Assad, most of the territory of the remote southwestern province of the country was controlled by rebel groups. Al-Bashir has experience in managing the administration of the Salvation Government formed by the rebels there.
A Facebook page of the rebel-run administration said that the new Syrian prime minister, Mohamed al-Bashir, is an electrical engineer. He was the head of the Salvation Government, affiliated with the Islamist armed group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the rebel groups against the Assad government in Syria. This government of rebel groups used to administer parts of war-torn northwestern Syria and Idlib.
According to a report by the Middle East-based media outlet Middle East Eye, al-Bashir was the head of the Syrian Salvation Government until January this year. He was born in the village of Jabal Zawiya in Idlib in 1986. The biography published by the Salvation Government states that the country’s interim Prime Minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, studied electrical engineering at Aleppo University.
He also holds degrees in Sharia and law from Idlib University. He also has experience in English, administrative planning and project management. Before joining the rebel-controlled administration against former President Bashar al-Assad, he worked for a Syrian gas company. He worked there as a supervisory engineer.
He later left that job in 2021 and joined the rebels in Idlib. He served as the Salvation Government’s Minister of Development and Humanitarian Affairs in 2022 and 2023. In January this year, the Shura Council of the Idlib administration elected Bashir as prime minister.
Last January, the local Syrian media outlet Levant Twenty-Four reported that he runs a platform aimed at strengthening the country’s economy through the use of technology and building a modern government by prioritizing the humanitarian needs of Idlib’s displaced people.
After the civil war in Syria began in 2011, several rebel groups opposed to the Damascus regime took control of the Idlib administration. Later, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham united all the groups and took control of Idlib.
In a brief speech on Syrian state television on Tuesday, Mohammed al-Bashir said he would lead the interim authorities until March 1.