Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa announced a transitional government on Saturday, appointing 23 ministers in a broadened cabinet seen as a key milestone in the transition from decades of Assad family rule and to improving Syria’s ties with the West, Reuters reported.

Syria’s new Sunni Islamist-led authorities have been under pressure from the West and Arab countries to form a government that is more inclusive of the country’s diverse ethnic and religious communities.

That pressure increased following the killings of hundreds of Alawite civilians – the minority sect from which toppled leader Bashar al-Assad hails – in violence along Syria’s western coast this month.

The cabinet included Yarub Badr, an Alawite who was named transportation minister, while Amgad Badr, who belongs to the Druze community, will lead the agriculture ministry.

Hind Kabawat, a Christian woman and part of the previous opposition to Assad who worked for interfaith tolerance and women’s empowerment, was appointed as social affairs and labor minister.

Mohammed Yosr Bernieh was named finance minister, read the report.

It kept Murhaf Abu Qasra and Asaad al-Shibani, who were already serving as defence and foreign ministers respectively in the previous caretaker cabinet that has governed Syria since Assad was toppled in December by a lightning rebel offensive.

Sharaa also said he established for the first time a ministry for sports and another for emergencies, with the head of a rescue group known as the White Helmets, Raed al-Saleh, appointed as the minister of emergencies.

In January, Sharaa was named as interim president and pledged to form an inclusive transitional government that would build up Syria’s gutted public institutions and run the country until elections, which he said could take up to five years to hold.

The government will not have a prime minister, with Sharaa expected to lead the executive branch.

Earlier this month, Syria issued a constitutional declaration, designed to serve as the foundation for the interim period led by Sharaa. The declaration kept a central role for Islamic law and guaranteed women’s rights and freedom of expression, Reuters reported.

American citizen Faye Hall said on Saturday she had been released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) after being detained in Afghanistan last month, Reuters reported.

“I’ve never been so proud to be an American citizen,” Hall said in a video posted by President Donald Trump on Truth Social. “Thank you, Mr President,” she added. “God bless you.”

Hall’s release was announced earlier by former U.S. Special Representative to Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad on X.

A U.S. official said Adam Boehler, the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, along with Qatari officials and others, negotiated her release. Hall was arrested in February with a British couple, Barbie and Peter Reynolds, read the report.

British media reported that the couple, in their seventies, had been running projects in schools in Afghanistan for 18 years, deciding to stay even after the IEA returned to power in 2021.

There was no mention of the couple, whose family has pleaded for their release amid concerns over their health.

A source said earlier that Hall was freed on Thursday following a court order and with logistical support from Qatar in its role as the United States’ protecting power in Afghanistan.

Hall was received at the Qatari embassy in Kabul and confirmed to be in good health after undergoing medical checks, the source said.

Several Americans are still detained in Afghanistan, Reuters reported.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the former U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan, has announced the release of another American citizen in the country.

Khalilzad said in a post on his X account that, according to information from the Islamic Emirate’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Faye Dai Hall, an American citizen who has been in custody in Afghanistan, will be released soon.

Earlier, George Glezmann, an American citizen whom the Islamic Emirate had held for over two years, was also released.