Who is Syria’s new prime minister – and what will he do?

Dressed in a modest grey suit and tie with a light blue shirt, bald and bearded, 41-year-old Mohammed al-Bashir addressed his fellow Syrians on Tuesday from behind a desk in an empty conference room. Asking for “stability and calm”, he announced that he would serve as the head of a transitional government until March 1.

Less than two weeks ago, any such address would have been given by Bashar al-Assad, the brutal...