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Cabinet Shift Within Syria Seems Aimed at Economy Cabinet Shift Within Syria Seems Aimed at Economy
(about 5 hours later)
DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria reshuffled his cabinet on Saturday, appointing seven new ministers, the state news media said, in a move that appeared aimed at shoring up an economy that has been ravaged by the two-year-old revolt against his government. BEIRUT, Lebanon — A public relations controversy erupted Saturday after a leading Israeli newspaper published comments from a brief interview with the leader of Syria’s main exile opposition group.
State television said that Mr. Assad had replaced the heads of ministries that focus on the economy — including the Finance and Agriculture Ministries and those relating to oil and labor. Critical security ministries like defense and interior, which are on the front lines of the civil war, remained unchanged. The news media outlets of the Syrian government, and its ally Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group, reported that the opposition leader had declared that Israel had “nothing to fear” from a rebel-led Syrian government. Moreover, the reports said, the opposition was working with other countries to keep Syria’s chemical weapons away from Hezbollah, which he called a “son of the devil.”
The fighting has left major cities in ruins and has gutted the nation’s industries. Power failures are common, and Syrians in some areas must wait for hours in lines for bread and gasoline. But the opposition leader, Sheik Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, never said any of that, according to the article in the Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, and its author, a prominent Israeli defense expert, Ronen Bergman.
The reshuffling was announced as fighting in Damascus and its suburbs raged for a fourth consecutive day, with clashes focused in southern and northeastern neighborhoods of the capital. Sheik Khatib was quoted in the article reiterating the opposition’s promise to keep Syria’s chemical arsenal out of “the hands of unauthorized elements,” and it was the international community, he said, not Israel, that had “nothing to fear.”
Rebels brought their fight within a mile of the heart of Damascus on Friday, seizing army checkpoints and blocking an important highway with a row of burning tires as they pressed their campaign for the city. When Sheik Khatib realized that Mr. Bergman was an Israeli — after glancing at his business card — he abruptly ended the conversation, Mr. Bergman said in a Skype interview, repeating what he had written.
The government controls movement in and out of the heavily defended city with a network of checkpoints, and rebels have failed in the past to make significant inroads and hold them. The original article was published only in Hebrew — and only in print — so it was the Arabic and English versions put out by the Syrian government and Hezbollah that raced around the Internet on Saturday, provoking outrage from government supporters and opponents at Sheik Khatib, who posted a message on his Facebook page denying that he had given the interview.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-Assad group based in Britain, reported intense air raids on several Damascus suburbs on Saturday, including Zamalka and Douma, and near a major highway that leads to the capital. It added that troops shelled the northeastern neighborhoods of Jobar and Qaboun that have seen fighting and shelling since Thursday. Yet the episode appeared to have been more than a simple misunderstanding. Syria’s conflict is not only a shooting war but also a propaganda war. Pro-government media apparently could not resist the chance to bolster their contention that the rebellion had been promoted by Israel and the West to punish Syria and its president, President Bashar al-Assad, for taking uncompromising positions against Israel.
A man who lives near Jobar said he fled Friday with his family to a safer area near central Damascus. “It was a bad day,” he said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We heard lots of explosions.” “Unfortunately, the original text was less exciting,” Mr. Bergman said. “I would be happy if he would say something like, ‘Yes, we will make peace with Israel’ — then I would get the front page.” As it was, the article elicited little reaction in Israel.
The war has heavily damaged infrastructure like oil pipelines, bridges and power stations. The airport in the largest city, Aleppo, is closed because of fighting, and the exchange rate for one American dollar is around 95 Syrian pounds on the black market, more than double its rate when the crisis began in March 2011. But misrepresentation of the article suggested that it hit a nerve on one issue. An unnamed opposition member, not Sheik Khatib, called Hezbollah “sons of the devil,” according to Mr. Bergman, and said the rebel coalition was working with other countries to ensure that “not one piece of military equipment, not chemical weapons and not any other item, will pass into their hands.”
The presidential decrees issued Saturday appeared to be an attempt to address some of the fallout — economic and social — from the civil war. Syria is Hezbollah’s main conduit for arms, and Hezbollah has backed Mr. Assad’s bloody crackdown at great cost to its popularity in the wider Arab world.
The order split what used to be the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs into two posts, apparently to give the new Ministry of Social Affairs responsibility for the rising number of people who have fled from one part of the country to another to escape the fighting. Although Mr. Bergman said the opposition member was offering his own opinion and not presenting official policy, his comments bolstered the widely held view that a rebel-led government might halt the shipment of Iranian arms through Syria to Hezbollah. Hezbollah, a Shiite group and political party, is also concerned about the rise within the rebel movement of extremist Sunni jihadists who view Shiites as apostates.
Syria’s civil war has settled into a bloody stalemate that shows no signs of stopping, despite several tentative proposals from both sides to find a diplomatic resolution. The misleading reports appeared to be an attempt to further divide the opposition. Sheik Khatib found himself fending off critics from within the anti-Assad movement who objected to his even speaking with an Israeli reporter, though by all accounts he did not initially realize that Mr. Bergman was an Israeli.
Syria’s information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, floated the latest proposal late Friday, saying that Damascus was ready for dialogue with the opposition, as long as the rebels laid down their weapons. He said anyone who responds will not be harmed. It was the second time in a month that Sheik Khatib found himself on the defensive. He recently proposed talks with members of Mr. Assad’s government, but had not built political support for the proposal.
The offer is unlikely to gain much traction, as the rebels deeply distrust the government. On Friday, Syria’s information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, gave the first official response to the proposal, saying that the government would negotiate with any opposition members who agreed to lay down their arms.
On Saturday, Mr. Assad named new cabinet ministers for oil, finance, social affairs, labor, housing, public works and agriculture, as Syria faces growing economic problems and shortages of electricity, fuel and bread.

Anne Barnard reported from Beirut, and Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem. Hania Mourtada contributed reporting from Beirut.