What happened
The rebel forces that ousted Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad on Sunday announced an interim government Tuesday. Mohammed al-Bashir (pictured above, left), who ran the rebel alliance's "salvation government" in its Idlib province stronghold, said on state TV he would lead the country as caretaker prime minister until March 1. He was pictured leading a Cabinet meeting with his Idlib governing team, rebel leader Ahmed Al-Sharaa — also known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (above, right) — and several Assad holdovers, including outgoing Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali.
Who said what
"Now it is time for the people to enjoy stability and calm," al-Bashir said to Al Jazeera, per the BBC, in his first interview as prime minister. In Damascus, life is "slowly returning to normal," The Associated Press said, with banks and shops reopening, people returning to work, traffic resuming and cleaners sweeping streets littered with bullet casings.
But "rebuilding Syria will be a colossal task following a civil war that killed hundreds of thousands of people," Reuters said. The terrorist designation of lead rebel group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in Western countries is a complicating factor. Al-Sharaa, the HTS leader, said on Telegram Tuesday per The Guardian that the new government "will not relent in holding accountable the criminals, murderers and security and military officers involved in torturing the Syrian people," but would grant amnesty to rank-and-file conscripted soldiers.
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What next?
"Even as the former rebels sought to consolidate power," The New York Times said, "Syria's neighbors set out to shore up their own interests." Israel said it had struck more than 350 sites to destroy Assad's conventional and chemical weapon stockpiles, occupied a buffer zone inside Syria and destroyed its Navy. Turkey and its proxy forces advanced on U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.
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