The new leader in Damascus, Ahmed al-Sharaa, dispatched three loyalists to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi to present his vision for Syria, following the fall of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad on December 8. The diplomatic face of the new transitional authorities, Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, was accompanied by two security figures, Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Qasra and intelligence chief Anas Khattab.

The three men are the backbone of the new power structure consolidating in Damascus around al-Sharaa, who was also known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani. They are longstanding colleagues of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) leader when the group was still working under the banner of the Al-Qaeda jihadist group, under the name of Al-Nusra Front (2012-2016). Starting in 2017, they played a central role in setting up HTS's institutions in its stronghold of Idlib, in northwestern Syria, which became a laboratory for the movement's governance.

The interim government's prime minister, Mohammad al-Bashir, has put together a cabinet of conservative Islamist technocrats centered around the three prominent figures, all of whom served in the Idlib government. The 41-year-old engineer, a native of the province and then minister of development and humanitarian affairs, was the point of contact with the United Nations and NGOs working in camps for displaced persons and with earthquake victims in February 2023.

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