Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview Shmuel Bar ...

Bashar’s Syria 42787. In the March 2000 cabinet, Zu’bi was replaced by Mustafa Miro, who had served as governorof the provinces of Dar‘a, Hasakah, and Aleppo for over twenty years. ‘Isam al-Za’im (b. 1940), ofAleppo, an advocate of economic reforms, was appointed as Minister of Planning. The portfoliosof finance and economics, though, remained in the hands of “old-timers” Mohammad al-‘Imadi andMohammad Khaled al-Mahyani, respectively.88. ‘Ali Hamud (b. 1944), former head of the General Security, was appointed Minister ofInterior; Mohammad al-Atrash (b. 1934), who held a doctorate in economics from the Universityof London and had served in the past as an advisor to the World Bank, was appointed asMinister of Finance and Ghassan al-Rifa‘i (b. 1942), PhD from the University of Sussex), andformerly Deputy to the Director-General of Economic Policy at the World Bank, was appointedMinister of Economics and Foreign Trade; ‘Isam al-Za‘im was promoted from Minister of Planningto Minister of industry. Three “colleagues” of Bashar from the Syrian Computer Societyalso were nominated as ministers: Sa’adallah Awa al-Kalah (b. 1950, PhD in computer sciencefrom the University of Paris ) as Minister of Tourism; Hasan Risha (b. 1945, PhD in engineeringfrom the Leningrad Polytechnic) as Minister for Higher Education; and Mohammad Bashir al-Munjayad (1947, PhD in electronics from the University of Paris) of Damascus, who had servedas Bashar’s deputy in the Computer Society. Two more members of the Computer Society, ‘ImadZuhayr Mustafa and Sami al-Khiami, were appointed as ambassadors to Washington and Londonrespectively.89. Al–‘Atari was born in 1944 in Aleppo. ‘Atari was a Ba‘th activist who has a BA in constructionengineering from the University of Aleppo and an MA in urban planning from a Dutchuniversity. He served as the mayor of Aleppo, the head of the engineering union in that city, and laterin Syria. He then became the governor of Hums.90. The number of ministers was decreased from 35 to 30. These included the Minister ofInformation, former Ambassador to Tehran, Ahmad al-Hasan, who replaced the veteran InformationMinister ‘Adnan‘ Unmran; Minister for Expatriate Affairs, the spokesperson of the foreign ministerand personal translator of Hafez al-Asad Butahyna Sh‘uban (b. 1953, PhD in English literature fromYork university who served as lecturer for poetry and comparative literature at the Department ofEnglish Language and Literature in the University of Damascus); Minister for Higher Education HaniMurtada, the President of Damascus University; and Minister for Education, ‘Adnan ‘Ali Sa‘d, whohad been Dean of the Faculty of Education at Damascus University.91. An anecdotal example is that of a Syrian who decided to park illegally near the RepublicanPalace. When challenged by the guards, he found himself daring to argue with them—something heknew he would never have done in the days of Hafez al-Asad.92. Data according to IMF Country Report No. 05/356: Syrian Arab Republic: 2005 ArticleIV Consultation—Staff Report; and Public Information Notice on the Executive Board Discussion,October 2005.93. About two million Syrians receive direct state salaries (1.2 million employees, 400,000military, and 400,000 retirees). That is around half of the work force, which is estimated at 5 million(out of a working age population of 10 million).94. Alfred B. Prados and Jeremy M. Sharp, Syria: Political Conditions and Relations with theUnited States after the Iraq War, CRS Report for Congress, January 10, 2005. Data based on IMFand World Bank reports.95. Oil production declined from 590 thousand b/d in 1996 to 485 thousand b/d in 2004 as aresult of the exhaustion of many major oil fields, coupled with an increase in domestic oil consumption,which reduces Syrian oil export potential.96. Bassam Fattouh, “Syria’s Confused Oil Future,” Al-Hayat, 14 October 2005.97. Matti Moosa, Extremist Shiites: The Ghulat Sects (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse UniversityPress, 1988), pp. 287–288.98. These include: al-Khayatin, al-Hadadayn, al-Mutawirah/Numilatiyya, al-Kalabiyya (of theAsad family), and the minor tribes of al-Haydariya and al-Qaratlah. See Ahmad Khatib, al-Khibral-Akid, pp. 431–436.99. For example, Generals Ali Haydar and Ibrahim Safi of the Khayatin tribe.