Interim Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa has announced a series of government changes, including replacing his brother as head of the presidential office, the state news agency SANA reports. Al-Sharaa appointed former Homs Governor Abdul Rahman Badreddine al-Aama as secretary-general for the presidency. This appeared to be a response to accusations of nepotism, with the post previously held by al-Sharaa’s brother Maher.

Saturday’s reshuffle was the first since the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024 and comes about a year and a half into the five-year transitional period set in Syria’s constitutional declaration. According to the report, presidential decrees appointed Khaled Zaarour as information minister, replacing Hamza Mustafa, who was moved to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Bassel Sweidan, who heads a committee tasked with reaching settlements with business tycoons linked to the Assad-era elite, as agriculture minister. Governors in the provinces of Homs, Quneitra and Deir Az Zor, the eastern province where most of Syria’s oilfields are located, were also replaced.