DAMASCUS: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday named Imad Mohammad Deeb Khamis, an electricity minister, as the new prime minister with a task to form a new government, the official SANA news agency reported.
Khamis is to submit his proposal for new ministerial appointments in the coming days. The 54-year-old engineer replaces Wael al-Halqi who had held the post since August 2012. The changes come two months after Assad’s Baath party and its allies won a majority of seats in parliamentary elections.
Khamis had served as Syria’s minister of electricity since 2011 and is an electrical engineer by trade. Since March 2012, he has been sanctioned by the European Union, which accuses him of sharing responsibility for the regime’s violent repression against the civilian population.”
In 2011, Syria’s conflict began with widespread protests demanding ‘reform’ but has since escalated into a bloody civil war that has left 280,000 people dead. According to the government, production of electricity has more than halved since the beginning of the crisis.