How did Mr. al-Shara rise to power?
Formerly known by his nom de guerre, Abu Mohammad al-Jolani, Mr. al-Shara spearheaded an offensive last month that ousted Mr. al-Assad and ended the Assad family’s iron grip on the country, which had lasted more than five decades.
Mr. al-Shara was the leader of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an Islamist rebel group once linked to Al Qaeda. His faction controlled most of Idlib Province, in northwestern Syria, during a long stalemate in the country’s civil war, which dragged on for nearly 14 years.
In late November, Mr. al-Shara launched the most significant challenge to Mr. al-Assad’s rule in a decade, capturing territory across several provinces without facing much resistance from the government’s military forces or from their powerful international allies Russia and Iran.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham and other armed factions in the rebel coalition would be disbanded and integrated into the fledgling government’s armed forces, a spokesman for the coalition, Col. Hassan Abdel Ghani, announced on Wednesday. He also declared that the Constitution had been nullified and that the legislature and army formed under the Assad regime had been dissolved, according to the Syrian state news agency, SANA.
It was not immediately clear whether there was a broad consensus among armed groups across Syria about Mr. al-Shara’s appointment as interim president. It was also unclear how long the transitional period would last.