The list of ministers appears to be a compromise between calls for a diverse cabinet to unite the divided country while keeping allies of the interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, in powerful roles.
A new caretaker government announced late on Saturday by Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Shara, appeared to be a compromise, meeting calls for more diversity even as he kept the most powerful ministries for his associates and allies.
The rebels who overthrew President Bashar al-Assad in December have since been acting as Syria’s de facto authorities, naming their leader, Mr. al-Shara, interim president to oversee a transitional government.
Mr. al-Shara announced the much anticipated new government late on Saturday night, swearing in 23 cabinet ministers in a ceremony that ran into the early hours of Sunday — the last day in Syria of the fasting month of Ramadan before the Muslim festival of Eid al-Fitr.
On Sunday, Syrians were accepting with some resignation the continued dominance of the rebel group that seized power in December but welcoming its inclusion of independent voices and wider representation.
Among Mr. al-Shara’s appointees are seven ministers affiliated with the provincial administration he once led in the rebel-held city of Idlib. But he also appointed nine independent ministers, among them technocrats and former activists, and included five ministers who served in the early years of the Assad regime before the country descended into civil war.
