Media reports say Mohamed al-Bashir has been appointed caretaker prime minister of the transitional Syrian government until March 1, 2025. The appointment reportedly comes after al-Bashir met with members of al-Assad‘s government.
“Today we had a meeting for the cabinet and we invited members from the old government and some directors from the administration in Idlib and its surrounding areas, in order to facilitate all the necessary works for the next two months until we have a constitutional system to be able to serve the Syrian people,” he told Al Jazeera on Tuesday. “We had other meetings to restart the institutions to be able to serve our people in Syria.”
Reuters and Al Jazeera reports that al-Bashir ran the rebel-led Salvation Government (SSG) in Idlib province before the 12-day lightning offensive swept into Damascus.
Al-Bashir reportedly has close ties to Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – the group that led the Damascus takeover – which is tied to the SSG he headed.
Al-Bashir was born in 1983 in the village of Mashoun, situated in the Jabal Zawiya region of Idlib Governorate. He reportedly graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Aleppo in 2007. By 2011, al-Bashir had become the head of the Precision Instruments Department at the gas plant of the Syrian Gas Company. After the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, he became director of the Al-Amal Educational Institute, which provided education to children affected by the war. In 2021, he obtained a degree in Sharia and law from Idlib University, alongside certifications in administrative organization and project management.
Prior to being appointed as a minister, al-Bashir served as the Director of Islamic Education at the Salvation Government's Ministry of Awqaf for two and a half years. Afterwards, he served as Deputy Director and then Director of Association Affairs at the Ministry of Development and Humanitarian Affairs. Between 2022 and 2023, al-Bashir served as Minister of Development and Humanitarian Affairs in the cabinet of Ali Keda.
