Syria president shuffles government officials and ministers, boots brother from key post

Sharaa changes foreign, information and agriculture ministers; former Homs governor named secretary-general for Syrian presidency instead of Sharaa’s sibling Maher, no reason given

DAMASCUS, Syria — Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa replaced several government officials and ministers on Saturday, including his own brother, in a partial government overhaul, state media reported.

The new appointments, announced by Syria’s official SANA news agency, include former Homs governor Abdul Rahman Badreddine al-Aama replacing Sharaa’s brother Maher as secretary-general for the Syrian presidency.

Mahar’s appointment had drawn criticism from opponents who accused the administration of favouring nepotism over merit.

Sharaa appointed Khaled Zaarour as information minister, replacing Hamza Mustafa, who was moved to the foreign ministry. As agriculture minister, he named Bassel Sweidan, who also heads a committee tasked with reaching settlement agreements with business tycoons linked to the Assad-era elite, replacing Amjad Badr.

Zaarour was head of the media faculty at Damascus University before his appointment.

Sharaa also appointed new governors for several provinces, including Homs, Quneitra, Latakia, and Deir Ezzor, the eastern province where most of Syria’s oil fields are located.

The reshuffle is the first since the ouster of former president Bashar al-Assad and comes around a year and a half into the five-year transitional period set out in Syria’s constitutional declaration.

No official reason was given for the changes, but protests and social media campaigns have emerged in recent months over worsening economic conditions and what critics describe as poor government performance.

The Syrian transitional cabinet created in March 2025 came after the ouster of longtime ruler Assad in 2024, and was dominated by Sharaa’s inner circle.