The President of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, today appointed the former Minister of Communications, Mohammed Ghazi Jalali, as the mandate holder of the new government, after the July parliamentary elections.

Jalili has been under European Union sanctions since October 2014 for his role in the conflict in Syria, which has killed nearly half a million people since 2011. The EU claims that Jalali was "responsible for the regime's violent repression of the civilian population".

He was the Minister of Communications for almost two years from 2014.

The EU first imposed sanctions against Syria in 2011, and the restrictions include a ban on oil imports from Syria, investment and limited exports of equipment and technology to Syria that could be used to repress the civilian population.