51 Syrian Cabinet Reshuffle

Syrian expat friends tell me the appointment of Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara as Syria’s new vice-president and the Cabinet reshuffle represent the removal of the last vestiges of Hafez’s clique. (“The triumph of technocrats over Baathist dinosaurs,” one commenter on Josh Landis’ blog rejoiced.) The idea is that Al-Shara has been promoted into irrelevance. It has been a common career trajectory: The ceremonial post of VP, ministerial portfolio stripped, followed by political obscurity. Sort of a golden handshake. One friend sees it as part of what he sees as Bashar’s ultimate aim: to dismantle the Baath Party and replace it with something a bit more like Egypt’s NDP, something free of bothersome rhetoric, something that exists purely to enrich its members and represent the government to the people.

The choice for the new foreign minister, Walid al-Muallim, ambassador to the United States and negotiator in the Syrian-Israeli “peace” talks for most of the 1990s, confirms the view that the reshuffle is about moving out Hafez’s men in favor of Bashar’s. Al-Muallim was commonly seen as Bashar’s man in Lebanon. He would issue a statement, often at odds with Al-Shara’s most recent statement on Lebanon, and then Bashar would say something similar. This, incidentally, would cause all kinds of confusion within the Syrian, Lebanese, and foreign governments as to what Syria’s policy on Lebanon was—or so I hear. But it certainly confirmed many’s impression of Al-Muallim as Bashar’s man.

Under the Emergency Law, the interior minister rules Syria as the president’s deputy. Which makes him more important than the prime minister. So the appointment of Bassam Abd al-Majid, the former commander of the military police, is more significant than the appointment of Mohammad Naji Ottri, who rose to power through the Engineer’s Syndicate and eventually became speaker of the People’s Assembly, as prime minister.

Amr Salem, the new ICT minister, is a former Microsoft guy. One commenter on Josh’s blog credits him for removing restrictions on the ports used for VOIP, FTP uploads, and email communications, but a friend in Damascus writes

Salem has nothing to do with the new policy. He was appointed about a year ago, after Dr. Nebras Fadel resigned his presidency advisor post. Such rumors are normal in Syria […] STE still blocks ftp, SMTP, POP, IMAP, and everything except HTTP and HTTPS. Now Salem is minister, and let’s see if he is going to change the blocking policy of the STE [Syria Telecom’s ISP], which is directly under his management. Personally, I think he is a good man. At least, he should be better that the previous minister, since he is not so corrupt, so far.

In 1999, Salem, the cofounder of the Syrian Computer Society (SCS, a quasi-governmental ISP), wrote:

In order for President [Hafez] al-Asad to feel comfortable promoting a particular technology, it must meet the following criteria:

  1. It should benefit the majority of the Syrian people. Technology geared toward the elite is not favored because such people have the resources and means to get what they want without government assistance.
  2. It should not disrupt the social structure or adversely affect the middle class, and should be within the means of the masses.
  3. It should have a direct impact on Syria?s overall social and economic development.
  4. It should not jeopardize Syrian independence or security concerns.

Salem would have to take this line in 1999. But ultimately, I do think he’s a sincere proponent of expanding access to the Internet in Syria, if a realist when it comes to the nature of the Syrian security services and the Interior Ministry. Ultimately, one must assume that where Interior Ministry and ICT Ministry interests diverge, Interior Ministry interests will trump ICT interests.

Other new appointments: Abd-Allah al-Dardari becomes deputy PM for economic affairs. Mohsen Bilal, a surgeon, becomes information minister. Former Syrian U.N. Envoy Faisal Mekdad becomes deputy foreign minister. Zyad Ayoubi, who I’m told has good connections with the Syrian aristocracy and Islami leaders, becomes minister of religious affairs.

Speaking of connections with the Syrian aristocracy, I’m hoping a reader more plugged into the ins and outs of Syrian gossip can write in and help parse out the family and faction backgrounds of the new ministers… This is the kind of stuff you can only get by spending some real time in Damascus. Anyone?

[tags]Syria, Syrian Cabinet[/tags]

2 Comments »

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  1. Please Verify Amr Salem’s credentials.

    Comment by A Syrian — December 11, 2006 #

  2. Did I get something wrong? Would be happy to issue a correction if so.

    Comment by The Skeptic — December 11, 2006 #

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