Syrian Prime Minister says Assad abandoned government and Captagon production grinding to halt - Trending

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In an exclusive interview with The National, Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Al Jalali recounted the final hours before Damascus fell to the insurgency. The departing senior official said a decision was made for ministers to go to their offices and continue working.

He said the government had received guarantees that official institutions would not be attacked, and Mr Al Jalali announced shortly after president Bashar Al Assad left the country that he was ready to support the continuity of governance and co-operate with any leadership chosen by the Syrian people.

Syrian militant group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham has selected Mohammed Al Bashir, an engineer formerly head of the HTS-linked Salvation Government that opposed Mr Al Assad, to lead the government transition process.

According to a profile released by the Salvation Government, Mr Al Bashir has served for a year as head of the group, which has been running most of the governorate of Idlib in Syria's north-west since 2017.

Meanwhile, Syria's production of Captagon has come almost to a halt since Mr Al Assad's regime ended, a Jordanian and a European official told The National.

Billions of dollars a year worth of Captagon have crossed from Syria into other Arab countries through Jordan since 2018, making for a common national security threat across the region known by global leaders.

[SOUNDBITE, DAVID LAMMY] Assad was a drug dealer funding his regime through Captagon and illicit finance.

In 2021, the Syrian government is estimated to have made more than $5 billion from the sale of Captagon.

Hamas has agreed in principle to an Egyptian proposal for a truce in Gaza of up to 30 days and the release of some of the hostages taken in Israel last year, sources told The National on Monday.

They said Hamas had started compiling a list of the estimated 100 hostages held by militants in Gaza, establishing their names, whereabouts, state of health and the number of those who had died in captivity.