Middle East — 2026-07-12

Syria Interim Parliament Holds Inaugural Session With 220 Members as Three Druze Seats Remain Empty

BLUFSharaa's parliament operates as a legitimation vehicle rather than a legislative check, and the vacant Druze seats signal that minority integration remains contingent on regime discretion.

Syria's People's Assembly held its inaugural session in Damascus on Sunday, taking the constitutional oath and electing Abdul Hamid Al-Awak, a member of the committee that drafted the 2025 constitutional declaration, as speaker with 99 votes 123. President Ahmad al-Sharaa addressed the 220-member chamber, telling lawmakers to "make this council a model of responsibility and competence" 23; SANA reported his July 1 decree appointed the additional one-third of members alongside the two-thirds chosen last year by regional electoral colleges 24. Four seats remain vacant, including three reserved for the predominantly Druze province of Sweida, which authorities said would stay unfilled until "conditions become suitable" following last July's clashes between government forces and Druze fighters, and one held by a lawmaker who died 2. Women hold 21 of the seats, 15 of them among those Sharaa appointed 2, and The National reported the session, originally set for July 7, was delayed under tight security days after twin bombings in Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron's visit 1.

Analysis
Sourcing rests on SANA's procedural record and a Reuters chamber dispatch, with secondary outlets largely echoing wire language rather than independently verifying it. The session formalizes Sharaa's centralized transition model rather than genuine legislative power, since the chamber can only approve laws while foreign policy, security appointments and cabinet formation stay outside its reach. The three vacant Sweida seats institutionalize Druze exclusion from the transition's first representative body, tied to an undefined political threshold rather than a fixed timeline, and Al-Awak's selection from the constitutional drafting committee keeps that authority concentrated among Sharaa loyalists ahead of the 2028-mandated constitution and electoral law. Reconvening within days of last week's indefinite postponement may instead reflect pressure to project stability after the Damascus bombings rather than any resolution of the disputes that caused the delay.

4 sources

Syria new parliament convenes for inaugural session - The National
Syrian transitional parliament holds first session - Arab News
New Syrian parliament meets for first time in Damascus - Al-Monitor (Reuters)
Syria's new People's Assembly holds inaugural session - SANA (Syrian Arab News Agency)