DAMASCUS, 15 June 2005 — Syrian President Bashar Assad named a new intelligence chief and deputy premier yesterday, less a week after the ruling Baath Party recommended economic and political reforms.
Bashar appointed Abdullah Al-Dardari, head of Syria’s state planning commission, as deputy premier for economic affairs, the official SANA news agency reported. The post had been vacant since Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Al-Otari formed his Cabinet in September 2003.
Meanwhile, a Syrian official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bashar had issued a decision appointing Lt. Gen. Ali Mamlouk as head of Syria’s General Intelligence Department, succeeding Lt. Gen. Hisham Al-Ikhtyar, who has become a member of the Baath Party’s Regional Command. Mamlouk had served as the deputy general director of the Air Forces Intelligence Department.
The General Intelligence Department is distinct from Syrian military intelligence, which faces international accusations of interference in neighboring Lebanon. The new appointments are in line with economic and political reforms recommended by the ruling Baath Party at its congress last week.
The choice of Mamlouk, in his mid-fifties and born in Damascus, was part of efforts to streamline the “mukhabarat” security service, focus it on domestic state security and downsize its pervasive role in society, other analysts said.
The new head of intelligence was expected to curb the agency’s overt political role and heavy-handed tactics against political dissidents, a semi-official source said. “The move is in line with efforts to push ahead with wider political reforms,” said the source, who requested anonymity.
The ruling party congress last week announced plans to ease a 42-year-old emergency law that allows arbitrary arrests and trial at a State Security Court. The congress adopted modest steps on the path to political reforms, but offered no major liberalization of the tightly controlled political system.
There has even been talk among Baath party members of the need for security reforms that would consolidate the disparate and often competing secret police branches and define their responsibilities.
