Assad reshuffles cabinet as jets strike

SYRIAN President Bashar al-Assad has reshuffled his cabinet as his warplanes raided rebel areas.

Syria is in the depths of an unprecedented economic recession because of the violence gripping the country for nearly two years, and the government reshuffle on Saturday focused on finance and social affairs portfolios.

The World Bank says the country's gross domestic product has shrunk by 20 per cent, and the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) puts unemployment at 37 per cent and possibly hitting 50 per cent by the end of 2013.

Assad changed seven ministers, the official SANA news agency reported.

It said he split the ministry of labour and social affairs into two, and brought in a woman, Kinda Shmat, to head the latter. Hassan Hijazi becomes labour minister.

Assad has announced several reshuffles since the uprising against his rule began, the most recent in August 2012.

Efforts towards finding a political solution to the conflict, which the UN says has killed more than 60,000 people, appeared to be deadlocked, hours after Damascus offered talks without preconditions.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition said on February 1, the day after an offer of dialogue by its leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, that any talks on the country's political future must be about the departure of the Assad regime.

Meanwhile, in the latest fighting, air raids on Saturday hit northern and eastern areas outside the capital.

Warplanes also hit the town of Sabineh south of Damascus, and fierce clashes broke out between rebels and troops in the embattled town of Daraya, where the army shelled insurgent positions, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The army this week launched a major offensive against rebel zones surrounding the capital, in a drive to break a stalemate.

Pro-regime newspaper Al-Watan said the army was "determined to crush terrorism around the capital and in big cities".

In the north, rebels stormed parts of Menegh airbase less than 25 kilometres from the Turkish border in Aleppo province, the Observatory said.

The Observatory said at least 15 people were killed on Saturday. It reported 136 deaths on Friday.

Lebanon's Maronite patriarch, meanwhile, is to visit Damascus on Sunday for the enthronement of Syria's Greek Orthodox leader, in a show of support for the country's minority Christian community.

Patriarch Beshara Rai will attend the enthronement of Yuhanna X Yazigi, the church said, in the first visit by a Maronite patriarch since Syrian independence in 1943, Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar reported.

It said the trip would "express solidarity between churches while Syria is in crisis, a crisis for Christians in Syria."

Syria's Christian minority makes up about five per cent of the country's population. Many Christians have remained neutral in the conflict while others have taken Assad's side for fear of the rise of Islamism.

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