Syria president swears in new cabinet

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has sworn in his new government, emphasizing on security and reconstruction as the country’s top priorities.

The swearing-in ceremony of the new cabinet, appointed earlier this week, was held in the capital, Damascus, on Sunday.

Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi heads the new cabinet, which consists of 11 new ministers, while other ministerial posts, including the foreign and defense ministers, remain unchanged.

During the ceremony, Assad urged the ministers to “provide a new vision” and to avoid “the negatives of the previous stage.”

The success of the new government will depend on “earning the trust of citizens through transparency and credibility,” he noted.

Assad was re-elected as the country’s president for a third term in June’s election, garnering 88.7 percent of the votes.

Syria has been gripped by deadly violence since 2011, with ISIL Takfiri terrorists currently controlling parts of it in the east.

The Western powers and their regional allies — especially Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey — are reportedly supporting the militants operating inside Syria.

More than 191,000 people have been killed in over three years of fighting in the war-ravaged country, says the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), calling the figure a probable “underestimate of the real total number of people killed.”

MSM/MAM/AS