Syria’s president asks former communications minister to form a new government

BEIRUT (AP) — State media in Syria say President Bashar Assad has issued a decree naming former Communications Minister Mohammed Ghazi Jalali as the head of the new government following July’s parliamentary election. The decree was issued on Saturday. The 55-year-old Jalali has been under European Union sanctions since October 2014 over the government crackdown during Syria’s conflict that has left nearly half a million people dead since 2011. The EU said at the time that he was collectively responsible for the government’s violent repression against the civilian population as a government minister. Jalali was communications minister for nearly two years starting in August 2014. Syria’s outgoing government has been in a caretaker capacity since the mid-July parliamentary election.