BEIRUT: President Bashar al Assad instructed Electricity Minister Emad Khamis on Wednesday to form a new government in Syria, a country fragmented by warring factions and economically ruined by five years of conflict.

A decree published by state news agency SANA gave no reason for replacing Wael al Halaki, who has served as prime minister for nearly four years and survived an assassination attempt when a car bomb struck his convoy in Damascus in 2013.

Mr Halaki was himself appointed to replace a prime minister who defected and later led an opposition team at peace talks in Geneva, which broke down in April as pro-government forces pressed an offensive against rebel-held areas of Aleppo city.

The government controls most of the war-torn country’s major population centres in the west, with the exceptions of Idlib, which is held by insurgents, and the rebel-held neighbourhoods of Aleppo.

Published in Dawn, June 23rd, 2016