Syria's Assad Appoints a New Cabinet

The Syrian flag is flown at half-mast in Damascus on May 20, 2024, after the country announced three days of national mourning following the death of Iran's President alongside his Foreign Minister and others in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border. (AFP)
The Syrian flag is flown at half-mast in Damascus on May 20, 2024, after the country announced three days of national mourning following the death of Iran's President alongside his Foreign Minister and others in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border. (AFP)
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Syria's Assad Appoints a New Cabinet

The Syrian flag is flown at half-mast in Damascus on May 20, 2024, after the country announced three days of national mourning following the death of Iran's President alongside his Foreign Minister and others in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border. (AFP)
The Syrian flag is flown at half-mast in Damascus on May 20, 2024, after the country announced three days of national mourning following the death of Iran's President alongside his Foreign Minister and others in a helicopter crash near the Azerbaijan border. (AFP)

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad issued a decree forming a new government under Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, the Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported on Monday.

The new cabinet sees new appointments in the ministries of foreign affairs, finance and electricity among others, and replaces an outgoing administration which has been serving in a caretaker role since parliamentary elections in mid-July, Reuters reported.

Another decree appointed ex-foreign minister Faisal Mekdad as Syria's Vice President.

Al-Jalali served as communications minister from 2014-2016. He has been subject to EU sanctions since 2014 for what the bloc called his "responsibility for the regime's violent repression of the civilian population".

According to UN figures, at least 350,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which erupted in 2011 from an uprising against Assad's rule.



Israeli Strike in Syria Kills 5 Soldiers

People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
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Israeli Strike in Syria Kills 5 Soldiers

People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)
People fleeing from Lebanon arrive on the Syrian side of the border with Lebanon in Jdeidat Yabus in southwestern Syria on September 25, 2024. (Photo by LOUAI BESHARA / AFP)

An overnight Israeli airstrike on a military site in the area of Kfar Yabous in Syria near the border with Lebanon killed five Syrian army soldiers and injured another, Syrian state news agency SANA reported Friday, citing an unnamed military official.

Israel's military did not immediately acknowledge the strike. Israel regularly targets military sites in Syria and facilities linked to Iran and the Lebanon’s Hezbollah but rarely acknowledges them.

Those strikes have become more frequent as Hezbollah has exchanged fire with Israeli forces for the past 11 months against the backdrop of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese and Syrians have fled across the border from Lebanon into Syria since the beginning of the week amid intense Israeli bombardment that Israel says is targeting Hezbollah fighters and weapons. The strikes have killed an estimated 700 people to date, including at least 150 women and children.