Syria’s former governing party, the Baath, is no more.The party had ruled the country for decades until it was overthrown, along with former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, on December 8 after opposition factions marched into Damascus. Wednesday’s announcement that the party would be dissolved merely formalised that process.
But it wasn’t the only group to be disbanded by the authorities – all armed factions were also officially dissolved, with the plan being to integrate former opposition forces into a new governmental structure.
Among the group’s disbanded was Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the group led by Syria’s de facto ruler, Ahmed al-Sharaa, who took on an undetermined temporary role as the country’s president on Wednesday.
The move comes as no surprise as members of Syria’s transitional government have signalled for weeks that HTS and other groups would be disbanded. The dissolution of the Syrian Baath party however is a strong symbolic moment after more than five decades of one-party rule. Advertisement
What have Syria’s new leaders announced?
Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, was officially named president for a transitional phase and the country’s constitution, adopted in 2012, was suspended.
The country’s various armed factions, which marched on Damascus and deposed the old regime were dissolved, with the intention to absorb them into official state institutions.
“All military factions are dissolved … and integrated into state institutions,” the state news agency, SANA reported Hassan Abdel Ghani, a spokesperson for the new government, as saying. He announced “the dissolution of the defunct regime’s army” an …
