Following President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s reshuffle of governors and ministers, questions have emerged over whether the appointments reflect growing public discontent or signal a preference for trust and security control over participation and competence. The post Al-Sharaa’s shakeup: A merit-based stat
Following President Ahmad al-Sharaa’s reshuffle of governors and ministers, questions have emerged over whether the appointments reflect growing public discontent or signal a preference for trust and security control over participation and competence.
14 May 2026
PARIS — Roughly a year since Syria’s current government was formed and tasked with overseeing the country’s five-year political transition, President Ahmad al-Sharaa redrew part of the power structure this month, replacing a number of ministers and governors. The reshuffle and the appointees’ backgrounds have raised questions over whether the new Syria is being governed on the basis of competence or loyalty.
All four governors and two ministers appointed by al-Sharaa this month have military or security backgrounds. All were also either previously affiliated with the Salvation Government in Idlib—the opposition governing body backed by al-Sharaa’s former faction Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)—or part of the president’s inner circle.
Al-Sharaa’s changes included appointing former Homs governor Abdulrahman Badreddine al-Aama as secretary-general for the presidency, replacing al-Sharaa’s brother, Maher al-Sharaa. Khaled Fawaz Zaarour replaced Hamza al-Mustafa as Minister of Information, while Basel Hafez al-Suwaidan replaced Amjad Badr as Minister of Agriculture.
At the provincial level, Murhaf Khaled al-Naasan was named governor of Homs, after serving as the province’s security head. Ahmad Ali Mustafa was appointed governor of Latakia, after holding various positions in the ports and maritime crossings sector. Ziad al-Ayesh became governor of Deir e-Zor, following several roles at the Ministry of Interior and as the presidential envoy overseeing the integration agreement with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ghassan Elias al-Sayyid Ahmad was appointed governor of Quneitra.
The government shakeup has revived longstanding debates over centralized decision-making, public freedoms, accountability and local participation—as well as the very nature of Syria’s transition. It also comes at a time of growing public discontent over deteriorating economic conditions and services, as promises of recovery and improved living standards remain unfulfilled.
This month’s presidential appointments do not appear separate from a mood of increasing dissatisfaction among the Syrian public in recent months. Many Syrians had expected tangible improvements in living conditions after the Assad regime fell in December 2024, but nearly a year and a half later, the prices of basic goods are rising as citizens’ purchasing power declines.
“Public sentiment is marked by dissatisfaction, a state of discontent due to the continued deterioration of the economic situation and the difficulty of making a living. An abundance of regional and international promises has yielded nothing tangible in terms of support, whether through the continuation of early recovery programs or inflows of investments into Syria,” Wael Alwan, a researcher at the Jusoor Center for Studies, told Syria Direct.
“An excess of hope and reliance on statements and promises, followed by a failure to translate them on the ground for various reasons, has created a sort of letdown,” Alwan added. “The media inflated the impact of lifting sanctions, and people were shocked that [any positive impact] would take considerable time. This was well known to specialists, but not to the general public.”
Syrian American politician and media figure Ayman Abdel Nour agreed. “The general mood has changed, due to the failure to fulfill exaggerated promises. The government, economic team and information ministry bear responsibility for inflating [expectations that] agreements signed with different countries would bring in billions of dollars” as well as the impact of regaining control of oil wells in northeastern Syria, he said.
“All this exaggeration has had negative effects, and is a major mistake that must be corrected. You have to keep your promises to the people,” Abdel Nour told Syria Direct.
The results of a poll conducted by the Syrian Center for Public Opinion Studies (Mada) between May 7 and May 10 reflect part of a public mood caught between hope and anxiety. Around 47 percent of respondents said they expected the recent government changes to be “radical” and shape different policies, indicating that a segment of Syrians still believe the new appointments could lead to improved government performance, according to Ahmad Taha, Mada’s program director.
On the other side of this hope are broader doubts about the criteria under which the new appointees were selected. Many Syrians believe that a range of issues, such as public services and transitional justice, have stalled with no significant changes. The question that arises is whether “appointments are made based on merit or something else,” Taha told Syria Direct.
Military and security expert Asmat al-Absi, who is close to the government, told Syria Direct the speed and breadth of this month’s administrative changes, as well as their focus on files that directly affect citizens’ lives, “could indicate an attempt to respond to the worsening public mood.”
“The criteria for choosing the new officials are a mixture of competence, administrative experience and political trust,” al-Absi said. “The appointments came in the context of rapid administrative changes across state institutions,” he added.
In turn, one political researcher in Daraa province said “the reshuffling of ministerial portfolios and governors is not over.” As “the annual evaluation process continues, it may be too soon for a final judgment” of the changes, he told Syria Direct.
The researcher, who asked not to be identified, interpreted the new appointments as “a response to popular demands and a desire to speed the implementation of promises made to the public.”
In a broader context, “the changes to some ministries, governors and internal security chiefs represent the first phase of further adjustments related to the People’s Assembly, negotiations over SDF integration and a resolution of the Suwayda dilemma,” said Ayman al-Dasouqi, a researcher at the Omran Center for Strategic Studies.
“Any current analysis will be preliminary, based on the available data,” al-Dasouqi added. “It falls in the context of internal reviews on one hand, and internal power dynamics on the other.”
With the appointment of new governors come questions over how the central government views provincial administrations in the current transitional period: whether it approaches them through the lens of civil service, or as political and security portfolios that require figures who can maintain security and manage local dynamics.
Syria continues to grapple with the repercussions of a protracted war and military divisions that persist in many regions, accompanied by a host of security, administrative and service-related complications. However, there is concern that a security approach could centralize power and delay the country’s transition to a more independent and accountable civil administration.
“The assumption of certain government positions by security and military figures is natural, dictated by the very nature of the role,” researcher Alwan said. “The position of governor is a civil-security post, or a security-civil one. The governor is the president’s deputy in the province, so is appointed directly by the president himself.”
The governor of each province is also considered “the leader of its security committee—which includes the heads of security branches, brigade commanders and heads of government departments—and is typically a retired officer with security, military or police experience,” Alwan added.
As Abdel Nour sees it, the new governors of Homs, Latakia, Deir e-Zor and Quneitra are “of one color: men from HTS.” Still, “people are calling for security before bread, economic growth and development, so this may be understood in a ‘security first’ context,” he said.
Commenting on that, al-Absi described the security and military backgrounds of the governors as a “response to the nature of the current stage and the need for security, [as well as] an attempt to ensure control of the security files in sensitive provinces.” Their profiles also reflect “a desire to unify the security and civil administration in some areas,” he added.
For his part, al-Dasouqi said there is “exaggeration in the idea of local administration turning into an extension of the security services.” With the establishment of internal security directorates, “the governor became closer to a political representative responsible for services, while responsibility for security lies with the head of internal security,” he added.
“To some extent, it may be understandable for governors to come from military backgrounds in a state being formed atop the rubble of complex security issues,” Mada program director Taha said. However, “solutions must be found to ensure the wheels of development keep turning,” he added, pointing to Turkey as an example, where each province has “a governor, appointed by the president, who is the chief security official, alongside a provincial council head who is democratically elected.”
But accepting Syria’s recent appointments as part of a transitional phase “does not negate legitimate questions of whether these appointments are a temporary response to post-war complexities, or whether they risk becoming a permanent norm in provincial administration,” the political researcher in Daraa said.
“There must be clear mechanisms for accountability and performance evaluation, so local administration does not become an extension of the central authorities, drifting from its role as a service-oriented administration that addresses local needs,” he added.
The controversy over al-Sharaa’s recent appointments is not limited to the governors’ military backgrounds, but extends to the identity of a new elite advancing within state institutions.
The presence of figures close to the authorities or linked to the “Idlib experience” of the HTS-backed Salvation Government sparks discussion over the balance between selecting trusted personnel during a sensitive political transition and concerns that the criterion of trust could become a means of narrowing the public sphere and limiting broader participation state administration.
Al-Sharaa “will not accept anything that hinders his progress,” a researcher from Damascus told Syria Direct, asking not to be identified. “At this stage, he sees the presence of people who can work in harmony with him as essential for his success. He is turning towards people from within the same system and circle—within the criteria of competence, experience and academic knowledge—in a way that moves the work forward,” he added.
“The newly appointed figures from HTS are people who worked in the ministries as assistant ministers or close associates, held senior positions and gained a good understanding of the situation. The authorities see them as better equipped than those coming in from outside the system,” the researcher said.
The current Syrian administration is investing “in cadres who were trained in Idlib within the Salvation Government, in political affairs and the rest of the institutions and groups there,” Abdel Nour said. “This is natural in the first months of a transition” but “we now hope the government will be more inclusive and comprehensive, incorporating technocrats from all components of the Syrian population.”
Commenting on that, al-Absi said “recent appointments show a preference for those with experience in previous security and administrative institutions,” prioritizing “trust over expanding participation, as many of the appointees come from institutional backgrounds close to the current authorities.” This approach “may limit opportunities for the participation of independent figures, or those from outside the inner circle.”
“Current indications still lean toward prioritizing loyalty over competence,” al-Dasouqi said. Still, “it is too early to say that it is a closed system relying on trusted cadres from HTS, its allies and the Salvation Government, as the reshuffles are at their early stages.”
“The approach and style of administration should change, more than a focus on individual figures. If not, we are facing changes that do not fundamentally alter the overall landscape,” al-Dasouqi added. “Political life—along with local participation, accountability, elections and the distribution of powers—remains incomplete, falling short of what is hoped for” in the absence of “a legal, regulatory and institutional framework to govern these matters,” he said.
“These are issues and spaces for negotiation that must be addressed to articulate concerns and present the guarantees sought by social and political forces and civil society organizations. They must be worked on in partnership with the government, rather than in opposition to it,” al-Dasouqi said.
For Taha, the recent appointments “generally do not reflect a democratic situation. If there are no clear accountability mechanisms, the Syrian state faces a double dilemma,” he said. “What is necessary is to create democratic mechanisms, rather than appointments, in addition to a clear path of transparency and accountability.”
Among Syrians polled by Taha’s organization earlier this month, “improving the economy and living situation drew the attention of the vast majority, so the authorities must work on this. It is [also] a crucial indicator in other polls regarding government performance,” he said.
Over the coming period, several indicators should be monitored, he added, including “the governance and administrative performance of institutions, the services they provide and people’s satisfaction with them.”
“The Syrian people—as well as the political and social elite—await the structuring of the political process following the formation of the People’s Assembly and a review of laws,” Alwan said. However, “the general public is waiting for something of far greater importance to them: economic recovery, a revival of economic activity and an easing of the livelihood crisis in Syria.”
This report was originally published in Arabic and translated into English by Mateo Nelson.
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