On the morning of Sunday, December 15, the Damascus governor's office, on the second floor of a building in the center of the Syrian capital with an armed guard, was buzzing like a beehive. Former employees of the governorate, who had returned to their posts after the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad a week earlier, were preparing for the arrival of the governor recently appointed by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group (HTS, or the Levant Liberation Organization, a former branch of al-Qaeda in Syria) – the new rulers of Syria.

They washed floors and removed faded pictures. They welcomed residents who had come to report a neighborhood problem or request a service. In the kitchen, employees chatted and smoked cigarettes, while coffee boiled on the stove. Former employees, some with more than 30 years' service, talked to those who had just been seconded from the salvation government set up by HTS in Idlib, its stronghold in the north-west of the country. The governor arrived, dressed in a navy three-piece suit, his shoes polished and his long beard neatly trimmed.

Maher Marwan settled himself on the sofa in his richly decorated, Damascene-style office. A native of the old city of Damascus, the 42-year-old was returning there for the first time, 12 years after fleeing the repression of the Assad regime. He is a product of the administration set up by HTS to manage the province of Idlib. Trained in Islamic law and administrative management, he has held positions in the group's ministries of awqaf (charitable endowments) and local development.

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