Syria’s Ruling Party Revamps Its Hierarchy

Syria’s ruling Baath Party ended a four-day conference by naming a revamped executive team Tuesday, including 12 new members chosen to help the nation’s new leader modernize the country and clean up government.

However, the party announced that policy toward Israel will not change under the leadership of Bashar Assad and that Syria will not make peace unless it gets back all of the occupied Golan Heights.

Assad, 34, the son of late President Hafez Assad, was confirmed by the party congress as its secretary-general and presidential nominee, clearing the way for his election as president by parliament on Sunday.

Assad, who has also been named commander in chief of the armed forces and has been the object of obsequious praise from the state-controlled media, is sure to be approved by the rubber-stamp parliament. A referendum to ratify his election is planned for next month.

A front-page headline in the party newspaper, Al Baath, conveyed the tone adopted by the country’s official organs: “Absolute loyalty to Gen. Bashar Assad, leader of the march of the people and the party.”

Among the 12 new members elected to the party’s 21-member executive body, known as the Regional Command, are Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa Miro, Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh, Deputy Prime Minister Naji Ateri and Minister of Local Administration Salim Yassin. All of them are seen as non-ideological experts and technocrats considered close to Bashar Assad, whose father died June 10.

But prominent members of the party’s “old guard” retained their positions, including First Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam, Second Vice President Zuheir Masharka, Parliament Speaker Abdel-Qader Qaddoura and Defense Minister Mustafa Talas.

The old guard so far has publicly supported the speedy hand-over of power to the untested Assad, in accord with his late father’s wishes. But it is unclear whether Assad is calling the shots within the party or if senior figures such as Khaddam are controlling events.

So far, the emphasis has been on continuing the elder Assad’s policies.

Bashar Assad, who has been associated with calls for economic reform and a crackdown on corruption, has not spoken publicly since his father’s death. However, the state-controlled SANA news agency said he did speak to the Baath Party delegates behind closed doors Tuesday, reportedly saying that he was “optimistic for the future of Syria.”

“I am one of the very enthusiastic people for technological and economic development,” Assad said in his speech, according to the excerpts published by SANA. “The ideology of the party and its slogans today are in tune with this age.”

He also called for the improvement of “work practices in order to meet the country’s need for development,” the news agency said.

The revamping of the executive committee was the first significant shake-up in the party hierarchy since the last congress 15 years ago.

At the just-completed meeting, members spoke of the need to make the party more active and dynamic. The organization has fallen into disuse in recent years because the elder Assad kept decision-making mainly to himself. For many ordinary Syrians, the 1.5-million-member Baath Party has ceased to be relevant and is often viewed as a haven of ambitious careerists.

Khaddam, the vice president, alluded to the problem in an interview with SANA in which he said the party’s first task will be to strengthen and democratize itself. “We need change, development and modernization to keep up with the developments the world is seeing today,” he said.

The party’s deputy secretary-general, Abdullah Ahmar, told a separate news conference that one thing the new leadership will not change is the uncompromising stance of the late Assad toward Israel, which has occupied the Golan Heights since the 1967 Middle East War.

Peace talks between the two countries broke down in January.

“When Israel is ready to accept the land-for-peace principle of the [1991] Madrid conference, and that means to pull back its troops to the June 4, 1967 lines, we will be ready to return to the negotiating table,” Ahmar said.