DAMASCUS/MOSCOW/TEHRAN/JERUSALEM, Dec. 10 (Xinhua) -- Mohammed al-Bashir announced Tuesday that he has been tasked with heading a transitional government in Syria until early March 2025 following the collapse of the government of Bashar al-Assad.
In a brief televised statement, al-Bashir said he would lead the transitional authority until March 1.
Al-Bashir, born in 1983, was an electrical engineer and head of the "Syrian Salvation Government" (SSG) in Idlib formed in 2017 by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other Syrian militant groups during the Syrian civil war. The SSG wielded administrative and service-related authority in areas under the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) control in northern Syria.
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Bashar al-Assad's decision to "withdraw from performing his duties as Syria's head of state is personal," Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by local media on Tuesday.
Moscow maintains contact with all regional countries, he said when asked about Russia's influence in the region and the status of its military bases in Syria.
He added that it is difficult to predict the future development of the situation in Syria.
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Iran has strongly condemned Israel's "frequent aggression against Syria's infrastructure and its occupation of other parts of the Golan," according to a statement by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei on Monday night.
The statement was released in response to Israeli airstrikes over the past two days targeting former Syrian government military and security sites in different parts of Syria as well as Israel's seizure of the Syrian buffer zone in the Golan Heights and neighboring lands.
Baghaei criticized Western states for supporting Israel with their "silence and inaction" in the face of Israel's "flagrant lawbreaking."
He said Israel's military attacks on the Syrian territory under current circumstances were a clear violation of the United Nations Charter, and called on the UN Security Council to take immediate action to stop the Israeli "aggression" and hold it to account.
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The Israeli military announced on Tuesday that its navy carried out a large-scale operation to destroy the former Bashar al-Assad regime's fleet.
The strikes destroyed "numerous" vessels armed with sea-to-sea missiles in Mina al-Bayda Bay and the port of Latakia on the Syrian coast in an overnight attack between Monday and Tuesday, it said.
The operation aimed to prevent the fleet's weaponry from falling into hostile hands, it added.
Separately, the Israeli Air Force has conducted about 250 airstrikes in Syria since the collapse of Assad's government, Israel's state-owned Kan TV reported. ■
