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.



Two Killed in Israeli Strike North of Lebanon’s Capital

An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)
An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)
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Two Killed in Israeli Strike North of Lebanon’s Capital

An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)
An ambulance takes wounded to a hospital in Beirut. (AFP)

At least two people were killed in an Israeli strike near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh, north of Beirut, Lebanon's health ministry said on Saturday, in the first attack on the area by Israeli forces.

The Israeli military was looking into the report of the strike in Jounieh, a spokesperson said. There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah, the Lebanese armed group that is fighting Israeli troops on Lebanon's southern border and whose top leadership has suffered blows from targeted Israeli strikes.

The health ministry said the Israeli strike targeted a car.

Two witnesses told Reuters they heard a small blast and saw a Honda sports utility vehicle travelling on the main highway south in the direction of Beirut begin to lose control.

The car stopped about 100 meters down the highway and a man and a woman ran out of the vehicle and into a grassy area on the side of the highway before another blast, the witnesses said.

One witness saw the charred remains of a person in the grassy area.