Syrian transitional government in the context of "Damascus"

Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to the north and northwest, Iraq to the east and southeast, Jordan to the south, and Israel and Lebanon to the southwest. It is a republic under a provisional government and comprises 14 governorates. Damascus is the capital and largest city. With a population of 26 million across an area of 185,180 square kilometres (71,500 sq mi), it is the 56th-most populous and 87th-largest country.

The name "Syria" historically referred to a wider region. The modern state encompasses the sites of several ancient kingdoms and empires, including the Eblan civilization. Damascus was the seat of the Umayyad Caliphate and a provincial capital under the Mamluk Sultanate. The modern Syrian state was established in the mid-20th century after centuries of Ottoman rule, as a French Mandate. The state represented the largest Arab state to emerge from the formerly Ottoman-ruled Syrian provinces. It gained de jure independence as a parliamentary republic in 1945 when the First Syrian Republic became a founding member of the United Nations, an act which legally ended the French Mandate. French troops withdrew in April 1946, granting the nation de facto independence. The post-independence period was tumultuous, with multiple coups and coup attempts between 1949 and 1971. In 1958, Syria entered a brief pan-Arab union with Egypt, which was terminated following a 1961 coup d'état. The 1963 coup d'état carried out by the military committee of the Ba'ath Party established a one-party state, which ran Syria under martial law from 1963 to 2011. Internal power-struggles within Ba'athist factions caused further coups in 1966 and 1970, the latter of which saw Hafez al-Assad come to power. Under Assad, Syria became a hereditary dictatorship. Assad died in 2000, and he was succeeded by his son, Bashar.

Mohammed al-Bashir (Arabic: محمد البشير, romanized: Muḥammad al-Bashīr; born 1984) is a Syrian politician and engineer who is currently serving as the minister of energy in the Syrian transitional government since March 2025. He previously served as the last prime minister of Syria. As prime minister, he led the Syrian caretaker government, which was formed after the fall of the Assad regime, and succeeded Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali in his role.

Al-Bashir had also served as the fifth prime minister of the Syrian Salvation Government, the civilian administration of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, from his election on 13 January 2024 until his appointment by the Syrian General Command as the prime minister.

The Ministry of Sports and Youth (Arabic: وزارة الرياضة والشباب) is a ministry of the government of Syria formed on 29 March 2025. It was created with the formation of the Syrian transitional government to take over responsibilities previously managed by the General Sports Federation, which had served as the highest sports authority in the country since 1971.

The Ministry of Electricity (Arabic: وزارة الكهرباء) was a department of the Government of Syria. The ministry was responsible for managing the electric energy and renewable energy sector in Syria, and a number of governmental institutions and companies were affiliated to it. On 29 March 2025, as a result of the formation of the Syrian transitional government, the Ministry of Electricity, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources were replaced by and merged into the Ministry of Energy.

In Syria, the production of electricity has been entirely nationalized. By the end of the 1990s, the Ministry of Electricity managed 74,9% of the production of electricity nationwide. The country was planning to become self-sufficient in electricity supply by 1998. For this reason, the Ministry never seriously considered renewable energies because they take a longer time to deploy. By 2010, the government encouraged private investors to develop the electric capacity of the country, but the war broke out.

The history of Syria covers events which occurred on the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic and in the region of Syria. The territory of the Syrian Arab Republic was occupied and ruled by several empires, including the Sumerians, Mitanni, Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, Hittites, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arameans, Amorites, Persians, Greeks and Romans. Syria is considered to have emerged as an independent country for the first time on 24 October 1945, upon the signing of the United Nations Charter by the Syrian government, effectively ending France's mandate by the League of Nations to "render administrative advice and assistance to the population" of Syria, which came in effect in April 1946.

On 21 February 1958, Syria merged with Egypt to create the United Arab Republic after plebiscitary ratification of the merger by voters in both countries, but seceded from it in 1961, thereby recovering its full independence. From 1963 until 2024, the Syrian Arab Republic was ruled by the Ba’ath Party, with the Assad family exclusively in power since 1971. Following the fall of the Assad regime, Syria entered a political transition under the transitional government on 29 March 2025.

On 22 September 2014, the United States officially intervened in the Syrian civil war with the stated aim of fighting the Islamic State (ISIL/ISIS) militant organization in support of the international war against it, code named Operation Inherent Resolve. The US currently continues to support the Syrian Armed Forces under the transitional government and the YPG-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

Shortly after the start of the civil war in 2011, the Obama administration placed sanctions against Syria and supported the Free Syrian Army rebel faction by covertly authorizing Timber Sycamore under which the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) armed and trained rebels. Following the Islamic State's occupation of Eastern Syria in August 2014, the United States conducted surveillance flights in Syria to gather intelligence regarding the Islamic State. In September 2014, the United States-led coalition—which involves the United Kingdom, France, Jordan, Turkey, Canada, Australia, and others—launched an air campaign against the Islamic State and al-Nusra Front inside Syria.

The Council of Ministers (Arabic: مجلس وزراء سوريا, romanized: Majlis wuzarāʾ Sūriyā) was first constituted in the Syrian Constitution of 1930. Following the fall of the Assad regime on 8 December 2024, Syria is currently undergoing a political transition, with Ahmed al-Sharaa leading a Syrian transitional government.