The Formation of the New Government in Syria versus the Aspirations of the People of ash-Sham and the Ambush of United States and the West
(Translated)
By Ustadh Nasser Sheikh Abdul Hai

On 29 March 2025, the new Syrian government was announced at the People's Palace in Damascus. The government, which included 23 ministers, including one woman, was formed. Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa said that the announcement of the new Syrian government is a declaration of our shared will to build a new state. In a speech during the ceremony announcing the new government, he added that Syria faces major challenges that require cohesion and unity. He emphasized that the new government's priority is to fight corruption, and that it will seek to rebuild state institutions on the basis of accountability and transparency. He also emphasized that the government's priority is to work on building a “national army” to preserve Syria's security.

Reactions to the government’s formation have ranged from welcoming to cautious to critical. Amid the vagueness and uncertainty surrounding the new Syrian administration, despite its partial and cautious welcome, Reuters published a list of conditions presented by Natasha Franceschi, Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Levant and Syria Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, to Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani for easing sanctions on Syria. This was presented during a face-to-face meeting on the sidelines of the Syria Donors Conference in Brussels on March 18. At the forefront of these demands were cooperation on “counter-terrorism,” ensuring that no foreigners hold senior positions in the country’s governance structures, and the destruction of any remaining stockpile of chemical weapons. According to a Reuters report dated March 25, citing US officials, the US pledged to ease further sanctions, issue new waivers, and extend the existing waiver issued under former President Joe Biden if Damascus met all the conditions.

Syrian President Ahmad al-Shara previously received a congratulatory telegram from the Director-General of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) on the announcement of the formation of the new Syrian government. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock previously said of the government’s formation, that “It is imperative that extremist groups are brought under control and those responsible for crimes are held accountable” and added that the government must, “control the actions of the groups within its own ranks and hold those responsible accountable.”

We will not delve too much into the composition of the government, which varied between Muslims and non-Muslims, and included Sunnis, Alawites, Druze, Kurds, and Christians. These included new members, those who had a previous role in the rule of the defunct Assad regime, those who had experience in previous coalitions or political forums, and those whose presence was in consideration of the “sectarian diversity” sought by the state. However, we will pause to clarify a few points:

Firstly: It is not just who will rule that matters. More importantly, it is how they will rule. Even if the ministers were the most pious, competent, and sincere of people - assumed for the sake of argument - what matters is the constitution that will be implemented. That is because it is the government that will implement it practically. What matters is also the collective of laws that will govern the affairs of the people and the state, both domestically and internationally. The justice of Umar (ra) was only achieved when he implemented the Islamic system, its Shariah rulings, and its legislation. The constitution that pleases Allah (swt), and pleases His servants, is the one whose foundation is the Islamic Aqeedah (doctrine) alone. It alone represents the aspirations of the people of Syria and its revolutionaries, who sacrificed nearly two million martyrs, over the course of fourteen years, so that their sacrifices would culminate in the governance of Islam, its state, its constitution, and its legislation. Islam would be implemented in a radical, comprehensive, and revolutionary manner in governance, politics, economics, international relations, and other areas, with the Islamic Aqeedah being the sole source of the constitution and laws, and legislation being the domain of Allah Alone, not of anyone else who is committed to enacting secular, man-made laws and imposing them on the people against their will.

It is the implementation of Shariah that enables us to confront all conspiracies, instead of appeasing countries under the pretext of gradualism, deception, politics, and national interest! Politics must be based on the rulings of Shariah, not on the whims of human reasoning and national interests.

Secondly: We have always said that the satisfaction of Allah (swt), who has commanded us to implement Islam, and the satisfaction of America, which calls for fighting Islam under the pretext of “fighting terrorism,” are two incompatible opposites. Therefore, we must not pay attention to gaining the approval, and acceptance, of the countries of the East and the West, which are blackmailing us with the issue of lifting sanctions. Instead, what is required is ideological stances that please our Lord (swt), because they are the only radical solution to all our issues in all aspects of life. This requires that the country’s policy and the care of its people's affairs be in accordance with the Shariah rulings of Islam, not in accordance with Western legislation that is alien to our Deen, Ummah, identity, culture, and civilization. Nor should it be subject to Western pressures, dictates, and anti-Islamic tendencies that impose them under the rule of a state. We are not unaware of the German Foreign Minister's warning about Damascus, when she said that Europe will not fund Islamic structures, and her warning against establishing an Islamic government after the tyrant’s overthrow. We are also not unaware of America’s stated, and unstated, conditions for its acceptance of the regime in Damascus.

It is America that is pushing hard to ensure that the regime in Syria is secular, with no role for Islam and its rulings, and even the exclusion of Islam from governance and the state. It is the one that is keen to have its own men and tools in the new authority to reassert itself. This is in addition to its concern for the safety and security of its protégé, the Jewish entity, its lamentations over sectarian factions and its push to grant them an influential role in governance. It is also keen to keep ash-Sham imprisoned by abhorrent nationalist and regionalist concepts to consolidate and perpetuate Western hegemony over the lands of Islam.

Any government after the fall of the tyrant must reflect the aspirations of the people of ash-Sham, and work to implement the principles of their revolution, which was planted with blood. The West must not have authority over us, dictating what we must and must not do. It is the West that is trying to prove its influence in ash-Sham through the issue of the small ethnicities and its attempts to attract them to its side, in order to serve its interests, not theirs.

Thirdly: The popular platform of the revolution has certainly established itself worthy of depending upon. It is the one that protects the revolution, its principles, and the aspirations of its people in every crisis. It is the striking force, and the natural support that must be relied upon, without even thinking about depending on those regimes and countries that are lurking around us. The rampage of the Jewish entity in Gaza and ash-Sham, with a green light but with full American cover, is not far from us.

In conclusion: It must be remembered that the great sacrifices made, and the pure blood shed on the land of ash-Sham, can only be rewarded by the implementation of Islam in a state of honor, strength, and power, carrying the Rayah banner of Islam, and led by the men of Islam. Those who truly represent the aspirations of the people of ash-Sham are those who raise the Rayah banner of their Messenger (saw), and the Rayah banner of their identity, civilization, and the dignity of their Islam. They are only represented by those who place the Pleasure of Allah (swt) above all other pleasures and place the implementation of His Shariah Law as the first constant determinant. This is what the people of ash-Sham have sacrificed their most precious children for. We ask Allah (swt), who has honored us with a temporary victory, by helping us to overthrow the Assad regime, to complete His blessings and favor upon us by establishing the Shariah ruling of Islam under the Islamic state, whose return our Messenger (saw) gave glad tiding of, after the oppressive ruling, when he said,

«ثُمَّ تَكُونُ خِلَافَةً عَلَى مِنْهَاجِ النُّبُوَّةِ» “Then there will be Khilafah (Caliphate) on the Method of Prophethood.” [Ahmed]

* Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Wilayah Syria