Syria’s new prime minister hails ‘dawn of freedom and dignity’

Mohammed al-Bashir is now the de facto ruler of Syria after 54 years of the single-family Assad regime came to a sudden end following an 11-day rebel offensive, writes Scott Lucas

Syria’s new prime minister, Mohammed al-Bashir, addresses a crowd at the first Muslim Friday prayers since the ousting of tyrant Bashar al-Assad at the Umayyad mosque in the old city of Damascus. Picture: Bakr Alkasem/AFP/Getty

Dressed in a modest grey suit and tie with a light blue shirt, bald and bearded, 41-year-old Mohammed al-Bashir addressed his fellow Syrians last Tuesday from behind a desk in an empty conference room. Asking for “stability and calm”, he announced that he would serve as the head of a transitional government until March 1.

Less than two weeks ago, any such address would have been given by Bashar al-Assad, the brutal dictator who had overseen the killing of hundreds of thousands of Syria’s citizens and the displacement of more than 11m.