SYRIA - The Government.

As explained earlier on, there are two layers of authority in Syria, one visible and formal, and a more powerful one which is invisible. From the prime minister down, many among the visible decision makers are technocrats who take decisions originating from the invisible layer. The technocrats have freedom in the way decisions are executed but, in return, are responsible for their actions; they will be punished if their actions endanger the security of the Ba'thist regime.

Both layers of authority are controlled nominally by President Bashar al-Assad . But real control is assumed invisibly by a small elite which limits Bashar's powers (see the political leadership in Gas Market Trends).

The president of the republic appoints and can fire the prime minister. But the choice and/or dismissal of the prime minister must be approved by the invisible layer before the president can make the announcement. Once cleared, the prime minister can appoint his cabinet.

The appointment of ministers, however, must be in line with directives issued through the president by the invisible layer. Under this Ba'thist regime, there is always a list of political ministers, mainly figures more powerful than the premier and having served in the cabinet for years, which must be retained in any government. Usually the most powerful political appointees in the cabinet are the ministers of defence, interior, foreign affairs and information. Some of the intelligence chiefs, military commanders and heads of key divisions of the ruling Ba'th Party are part of the invisible layer of authority. It is below all these figures that the rest of the cabinet, mostly involving technocrats, can take part in governing the country.

This has been the system since 1970, when Gen. Hafez al-Assad  took over power from a more radical faction of the Ba'th Party. In March 2000, three months before he died, President Assad got his eldest surviving son Bashar to play the key role in the formation of a new government under Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Miro. It took nine months after Assad's death for Bashar, as president of the republic, to get Dr Miro to form another government supposed to reflect "positive changes" which the young ruler had promised since March 2000.

It turned out that Miro's second government, announced on Dec. 13, 2001, was more conservative than the first one. That was thanks to the invisible layer, with the man brought in to be in charge of the economy - then deputy prime minister Dr. Muhammed al-Hussein - opposed to any radical moves to change the economic system of centralised control.

In the cabinet that was formed in September 2003 by Muhammad al-Utri, Dr. Hussein was demoted to minister of finance, replacing a reformist figure Muhammad al-Atrash, and the portfolio of trade was given to a liberal newcomer, Ghassan al-Rifa'i. The posts of deputy prime ministers were eliminated to give the new government a liberal image. But later Abdullah Dardari was made deputy PM for economic affairs (see background in Vol. 61 DT No. 12).

On Feb. 11, 2006, PM Utri formed a new cabinet but had to retain the powerful political appointees, such as Defence Minister Hassan Turkmani and Finance Minister Dr. Hussein and deputy PM Dardari. All are members of the Ba'th Party's local command. Utri brought in 14 new ministers.

President Assad made the following political appointments, after having made foreign minister Farouq al-Shara' first vice president:

Walid al-Mu'allem, a veteran diplomat and deputy foreign minister, was made foreign minister to succeed Shara'. Faisal al-Meqdad, until then the Syrian was made deputy foreign minister.

Bassam Abdel-Majid, the chief of military police, was made minister of interior to succeed Ghazi Kan'an who died in October 2005. The official version is that Kan'an, a prominent member of the ruling Alawite minority, committed suicide in his central Damascus office. The rumours in Damascus and in Lebanon is that he was assassinated because he was among favoured US-promoted candidates to replace Bashar al-Assad as president of Syria in a peaceful coup d'etat. It was also rumoured recently that Kan'an's grave had been pillaged.

Mohsen Bilal, until then Syria's ambassador to Spain, was made minister of information.

Farouq al-Shara' had been made first vice president before the cabinet shake-up to fill a vacancy left in June 2005 when Abdel-Halim Khaddam quit this post and later defected to join the opposition to Assad's B'athist regime (see Gas Market Trends).