Syria's Assad appoints a new cabinet

A picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is seen at a train station in Damascus, Syria, September 12, 2018. Picture taken September 12, 2018. /Marko Djurica

DUBAI - 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.

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 U.N. 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.

- (Reuters)