The rebel coalition that seized control of Syria last month appointed its leader, Ahmed al-Shara, as president of the country to preside over a transitional period, Syrian state media reported on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the coalition, Col. Hassan Abdel Ghani, also declared that the Constitution had been nullified and the legislature and army formed under the country’s deposed dictator, Bashar al-Assad, were dissolved, according to the state news agency, SANA.
The declarations amounted to the country’s first official steps toward establishing a new government after the rebel coalition led by the group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or H.T.S., swept into the capital, Damascus, last month in a lightning offensive that toppled Mr. al-Assad. Mr. al-Shara, who led that coalition, has since been serving as the country’s de facto leader.
As president of the transitional government, Mr. al-Shara will be at the helm of a once unimaginable period of transition in Syria, which had been ruled by the iron fist of the Assad family for more than 50 years.
After nearly 14 years of civil war that left Syria severely fractured, Mr. al-Shara is trying to unite many disparate rebel factions under a single government. But it was not immediately clear whether there was a broad consensus among those groups about his appointment as president for a transitional period or how long that period would last.
The declarations on Wednesday were published during a meeting in Damascus between H.T.S. officials and leaders of some of the other rebel groups that opposed Mr. al-Assad. By making the flurry of announcements during that forum, H.T.S. leaders appeared to be trying to demonstrate that Mr. al-Shara had won the support of various rebel groups.
Still, H.T.S. officials did not publish any information about which rebel groups were present at the meeting or the process through which they appointed Mr. al-Shara, leaving uncertainty over whether there was a unified front behind these steps.
Since H.T.S. seized Damascus in early December, Mr. al-Shara has laid out lofty goals for Syria, including rebuilding the state, ridding state institutions of corruption and cronyism, and freeing the country from the terror that defined Mr. al-Assad’s government — particularly during the country’s long civil war.
“What Syria needs today is greater than ever before,” he said in remarks published by SANA on Wednesday. “Just as we were determined to liberate it in the past, our duty now is to commit to rebuilding and advancing it.”
But many Syrians have questioned whether Mr. al-Shara will be able to deliver on the sweeping promises of H.T.S. and reconcile his rebel group’s militant Islamist roots with a largely secular state.
His armed Islamist group evolved years ago from an affiliate of Al Qaeda and Mr. al-Shara has had a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head for years. American officials under the Biden administration announced in a visit to Damascus last month that they planned to scrap that designation.
Mr. al-Shara is now expected to establish a temporary legislative council that will govern the country until a new Constitution is adopted, according to SANA. That council will be tasked with overseeing a country left largely in disarray after Mr. al-Assad fled in December.
Syria’s economy is destroyed and its currency is nearly worthless. Parts of the country are still effectively controlled by Kurdish and other militias that either oppose or do not fully trust Mr. al-Shara’s rebel coalition. And the coalition is overstretched, with far too few fighters to maintain security over the entire country.
Since seizing the capital, Mr. al-Shara and his associates have effectively transplanted leaders from their rebel government in the northwestern province of Idlib — known as the Syrian Salvation Government — to Damascus. Many of those officials’ credentials are more religious than professional, leaving some Syrians skeptical of both their intentions and capabilities.
Most of those officials belong to the country’s Sunni Muslim majority, stoking concerns among the country’s many minorities including Shiites, Druse, Christians and others.
In December, H.T.S. officials laid out an ambitious time frame for establishing a permanent new government in Syria. They said that within three months, they would arrange a conference with community leaders, professors, intellectuals and others — including members of Syria’s many religious sects — to discuss the formation of a representative, caretaker government.
It was not immediately clear on Wednesday whether the rebels still planned to hold a meeting with community leaders before the March 1 deadline.
The group also said it intended to create a committee to draw up a new constitution in the coming years, according to H.T.S. leaders, and establish a justice system to try people accused of atrocities during Mr. al-Assad’s dictatorship.
Reham Mourshed contributed reporting.
