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Syria's President Announces New Cabinet

VOA News April 14, 2011

Syrian state-run media report President Bashar al-Assad has announced formation of a new Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Adel Safar.

President Assad dimissed the previous government more than two weeks ago in an apparent concession to growing protests by Syrians seeking political reforms.

Safar is a former agriculture minister who replaced Mohammed Najo Otri as prime minister when the previous Cabinet stepped down in March.

Demonstrators in Syria have been demanding sweeping reforms, particularly an end to the decades-old emergency law that gives the government a free hand to stamp out public protests, ban opposition and justify arbitrary arrests.

Earlier Thursday, reports from Syria said President Assad had met with representatives from a protest-hit town of Daraa.

There was no immediate word on the outcome of the talks, which were an apparent effort to calm the situation in Daraa.

Last Friday, at least 26 protesters were killed in the Daraa area after plainclothes security forces opened fire on demonstrators. There had been growing violence in the city between pro-government forces and opposition activists.

Meanwhile, the state-run news agency said Thursday that snipers fired on a military patrol in the coastal city of Banias, killing one soldier and wounding a second.

On Wednesday, witnesses said hundreds of Syrians, mostly women and children, blocked a major coastal highway linking Banias and the town of Tartous to protest the government's detention of opposition activists.

The Amnesty International rights group on Thursday urged President Assad to "rein in" his security forces to prevent any additional "unlawful killings." In a statement, the group says the Syrian government appears to be intent on "trying to crush all dissent."

Separately, the Wall Street Journal says Iran is secretly helping President Assad crack down on opposition protests. The newspaper on Thursday quotes U.S. officials as saying Tehran is providing equipment to Syria as well as assistance in monitoring and blocking protesters' use of cell phones, text-messaging and the Internet.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.