The Ministry of Defense (Arabic: وزارة الدفاع) is a cabinet ministry of Syria, responsible for defense affairs. Murhaf Abu Qasra, Minister of Defense holds the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Armed Forces.
Following the fall of the regime of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, caretaker prime minister Mohammed al-Bashir has said the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from the former Ba'athist armed forces.
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The Syrian Armed Forces (Arabic: القوات المسلحة السورية, romanized: al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah as-Sūrīyah) are the military forces of Syria.
Up until the fall of Bashar al-Assad's Ba'ath Party regime in December 2024, the Syrian Arab Armed Forces were the state armed forces. They consisted of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Navy, Syrian Arab Air Defence Force, and paramilitary forces, such as the National Defence Forces. According to the 2012 Constitution of Ba'athist Syria, the President of Syria was the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defense held the position of Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Armed Forces.
Muhammad al-Sufi (Arabic: محمد الصوفي; 1927 – 19 November 2018) was a Syrian field marshal who played a role in the 1963 Syrian coup d'état and briefly served as Defense Minister between March and May of that year. Politically a Nasserist, he was sidelined by Ba'athist rivals in the military and departed the political scene before returning to Syria in the 1990s.
The Military Intelligence Directorate (MID; Arabic: شعبة المخابرات العسكرية, romanized: Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya) was the military intelligence agency of Ba'athist Syria until 2024. Although its roots go back to the French mandate period, the organization was established in 1969. Its predecessor organization was called the Second Bureau. It was headquartered at the Defense Ministry building in Damascus. The military intelligence agency was very influential in the politics of Ba'athist Syria.
The Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF; Arabic: القوات المسلحة العربية السورية, romanized: al-Quwwāt al-Musallaḥah al-ʿArabīyah as-Sūrīyah) were the combined armed forces of Ba'athist Syria from 1963 to 2024. They served during the rule of the Ba'ath Party in Syria.
The SAAF consisted of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Air Defense Force, Syrian Arab Navy. According to the 2012 Constitution of Syria, the President of Syria was the Commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Minister of Defence held the position of Deputy Commander-in-chief of the Army and Armed Forces.
Major General Murhaf Ahmed Abu Qasra, also known by his nom de guerre Abu Hassan al-Hamawi and Abu Hassan 600, is a Syrian military officer and politician who is currently serving as Minister of Defense in the Syrian transitional government since 21 December 2024.
His appointment comes as part of a broader effort to institutionalise and unify the military forces of the former Syrian opposition.
Lieutenant General Ali Abdullah Ayyoub (Arabic: علي عبد الله أيوب, romanized: ʿAlī ʿAbd Allāh Ayyūb; born 28 April 1952) is a Syrian former military officer and politician. He served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Syria from 2020 to 2022, and was the Minister of Defense and was personally appointed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on 1 January 2018. Ayyoub has a long experience in commanding manoeuvre formations and is also recognized as a specialist in land warfare.