Assad shuffles key cabinet positions as first move of the New Year

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday appointed new ministers to the defense, industry, and information portfolios, according to state television.

The new appointees are more in line with Assad and his regime, including General Ali Abdullah Ayub, the new defense minister who was previously a chief of staff in the army and is a member of Assad’s Alawite sect.

The new information minister previously headed Syria radio and television, another move indicating Assad is preparing for the post-Islamic State (IS) transition period as the military campaign slows down.

The shake-up of senior government positions comes as peace talks are ramping up and the regime’s battlefield victories anti-Assad rebels and the jihadist group consolidate. The Syrian President, however, is increasingly having to deal with the Kurdish question in the northeast of the country.

The commander of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria last week said that Moscow had promised Kurds in Rojava (Syrian Kurdistan) that they would be represented at peace talks on Syria to be held next month in Russia.

Gen. Sipan Hemo explained that Russia had said that 155 representatives from that area would be invited to attend the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, scheduled for Jan. 29-30 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. Plans to hold the conference were announced on Dec. 22 as the eighth round of talks on Syria ended in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The Astana negotiations have been sponsored by Russia, Iran, and Turkey over the past year. The Turkish President, since then, seems to have changed his position on helping the embattled Syrian government.

Earlier in December, Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations, had also declared that the US and Turkish troops should pull out of his country “immediately and unconditionally.”