President Ahmed al-Sharaa has reshuffled Syria’s security and intelligence leadership, expanding the authority of Interior Minister Anas Khattab and appointing new officials to key positions as part of a broader reform of state security bodies.

Announced on Sunday, the changes include Khattab taking on an additional role as head of the National Security Bureau, which oversees Syria’s various security agencies, while continuing to lead the interior ministry, according to the state news agency SANA. Hussein al-Salamah was named deputy head of the bureau, Mulham al-Shantout became assistant interior minister for security affairs, and Abdul Qader Tahan was appointed head of the General Intelligence Service.

The government stated that the shake-up aims to strengthen security and clear the way for reconstruction efforts.

Omer Ozkizilcik, a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Syria Project, told Al Jazeera that the reshuffle reflects an effort to formalise power structures carried over from al-Sharaa’s administration in Idlib, where Khattab previously managed both intelligence and policing duties that later overlapped with Salamah’s responsibilities.

Syria’s transitional government under al-Sharaa was established a month after former President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia in December 2024, ending decades of Assad family rule.

Days after the reshuffle, at a NATO summit in Turkiye, US President Donald Trump met al-Sharaa, and Washington announced it would remove Syria from its list of state sponsors of terrorism.

Sources