Syria reshuffles cabinet for first time since fall of al-Assad
Al Jazeera Staff
Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa has announced his first cabinet reshuffle since the ousting of Bashar al-Assad, replacing his own brother as head of the presidential office amid public discontent over governance and economic woes. The changes include new ministers for information, foreign affairs and agriculture, as well as governors in three provinces.
Syria's interim president Ahmed al-Sharaa on April 26 (local time) announced a series of personnel changes in the government, including replacing his brother from the post of head of the presidential office, according to state news agency SANA.
Specifically, al-Sharaa appointed former Homs governor Abdul Rahman Badreddine al-Aama as secretary-general of the presidential palace, replacing his brother Maher. The earlier appointment of Maher had drawn criticism as nepotism.
This is the first cabinet reshuffle since President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in late 2024. The move comes about one and a half years into a 5-year transitional period stipulated in Syria's constitutional declaration.
According to SANA, presidential decrees also appointed Khaled Zaarour as minister of information replacing Hamza Mustafa, who was moved to the foreign affairs portfolio. Bassel Sweidan — head of the committee handling agreements with business tycoons formerly linked to the al-Assad-era elite — was named agriculture minister.
Al-Sharaa also replaced governors in the provinces of Homs, Quneitra and Deir Az Zor, the eastern province that holds most of Syria's oil fields.
Although no official reason was given for these changes, Al Jazeera journalist Resul Sardar Atas reported that after al-Sharaa announced the transitional government in March 2025, his selections had been criticized. “People criticized the president because he had earlier appointed all his close friends to ministerial posts,” Atas said.
In recent months, protests and social media campaigns have erupted over worsening economic conditions and what critics call weak governance, providing another motive for al-Sharaa's cabinet overhaul.
Alongside the personnel changes, al-Sharaa's administration last month also began holding trials for former al-Assad-era officials, after having faced criticism for delays in the promised transitional justice process following the 14-year civil war that left an estimated half a million people dead.
On April 26, a pre-trial hearing opened in Damascus for Atef Najib, former political security director of Deraa province in southern Syria. He is accused of overseeing a violent crackdown on protesters there during the 2011 uprising that sparked the civil war, and faces charges related to “crimes against the Syrian people,” according to SANA.
Najib, a cousin of former President al-Assad, was the only defendant present in court for the preliminary hearing, and the trial is expected to continue this month. Absent defendants include al-Assad and his brother Maher, former commander of the army's 4th Armored Division, along with other senior security officials. They are charged with murder, torture, extortion and drug trafficking.
