Syrian President Assad chooses a new cabinet

The Syrian state news agency (SANA) reported on Monday that President Bashar al-Assad formed a new government led by Prime Minister Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali through an order.

The new government includes new people in charge of ministries like electricity, foreign affairs, and finance. It takes the place of an administration that has been acting as a caretaker since the mid-July elections for parliament.

Faisal Mekdad, who used to be Syria’s foreign minister, was named Vice President by another order.

From 2014 to 2016, Al-Jalali was the minister of communications. An EU ban on him has been in place since 2014 because the EU said he was “responsible for the regime’s violent repression of the civilian population.”

The U.N. says that at least 350,000 people have died in Syria’s civil war, which began in 2011 with a protest against Assad’s rule.