DAMASCUS, 11 September 2003 — Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad yesterday accepted the resignation of the Cabinet of Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Mero and appointed Parliament speaker Mohammed Naji Al-Otari to head a reformist government.
“Naji Al-Otari is a reformist and a stern advocate of modernisation,” Mahmoud Al-Abrash, the speaker of parliament’s foreign affairs commission, told Reuters. Assad said last month that pushing through reforms would be the main task of the new Cabinet he planned to form. The change of prime minister is the first since he took office in 2000, succeeding his late father Hafez Al-Assad. After becoming president, Assad announced a wide-ranging reform program. Critics of the outgoing Cabinet said it had been slow to put the plans into action. “I expect Otari to speed up reform to a reasonable pace. Not too fast but fast enough,” said Abrash.
Otari, an architect, is a prominent member of the ruling Socialist Arab Baath Party, a former deputy prime minister and a former governor of the central city of Homs.
“Full harmony is the key element in the formation of the new Cabinet,” said Rateb Al-Shalah, the chairman of the Union of Syrian Chambers of Commerce.
Combating Money Laundering: President Assad issued a law to clamp down on money laundering and stipulating up to six years in jail for those found guilty of illegal transactions, the press reported yesterday.
