Syria’s Al-Sharaa reshuffles security and intelligence leadership

Government says the shake-up will strengthen security and clear the way for reconstruction.

President Ahmed al-Sharaa has overhauled Syria’s security and intelligence leadership, expanding the powers of his interior minister and installing a new intelligence chief as part of a broader shake-up of state security bodies.

The changes announced on Sunday saw Interior Minister Anas Khattab handed an additional role as head of the National Security Bureau, which oversees Syria’s various security agencies,  while continuing to run the interior ministry, reported the state news agency SANA.

Hussein al-Salamah was named the bureau’s deputy head, Mulham al-Shantout became assistant interior minister for security affairs and Abdul Qader Tahan was appointed head of the General Intelligence Service.

Syrian authorities described the reshuffle as part of efforts to strengthen national security, promote stability and remove obstacles to reconstruction.

The General Intelligence Service is responsible for gathering intelligence, producing assessments on domestic and foreign threats and countering espionage and terrorism.

Its new chief now sits legally under Khattab’s authority, consolidating oversight of Syria’s security apparatus under one of the most powerful officials in al-Sharaa’s government.

Omer Ozkizilcik, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Syria Project, told Al Jazeera that the reshuffle reflects an effort to formalise power structures carried over from al-Sharaa’s administration in Idlib, when Khattab oversaw both intelligence and policing duties that later overlapped with Salamah’s.

Syria’s transitional government under al-Sharaa was formed a month after former President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in December ۲۰۲۴, ending decades of Assad family rule.

Al-Sharaa’s administration has sought to present itself as a unifying, reform-minded government while working to bring Syria’s fragmented security structure under central control.

The reshuffle comes after a turbulent few weeks for Syria’s security services. An explosion killed at least ۱۰ people when it tore through a cafe near the main judicial complex in Damascus on July ۲.

Five days later, a person was killed and ۳۶ wounded when explosive devices hidden in a rubbish bin and a parked car detonated in the capital as French President Emmanuel Macron met al-Sharaa at the presidential palace,

Syrian authorities said they arrested members of an ISIL-linked cell blamed for both attacks, tracing suspects through security camera video.

Earlier this month, customs officers at the Iraqi border intercepted a shipment of missiles, rockets and drones concealed in an oil tanker, which they said was bound for Hezbollah, the Iran-aligned group in Lebanon. Hezbollah denied the allegation.

During his visit, Macron, the first major Western leader to visit since al-Sharaa established himself in Damascus, restored full diplomatic relations with Syria.

Days later, at a NATO summit in Turkiye, US President Donald Trump met al-Sharaa, and Washington announced it would remove Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.