Syria PM defects, vows to topple 'terrorist regime'
Source: Agencies |
August 7, 2012, Tuesday
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SYRIA'S prime minister defected to the opposition seeking to overthrow what fleeing Riyad Hijab called the "terrorist regime" of President Bashar Assad, marking one of the highest profile desertions from Damascus.
Hijab, who like much of the opposition comes from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, is not part of Assad's inner circle, but as the most senior serving civilian official to defect his departure dealt a heavy symbolic blow to an establishment rooted in the president's minority Alawite sect.
His departure is unlikely to have repercussions for Assad's grip on power. That is rooted in the army and a security apparatus dominated by Alawites, which was rocked by a bomb last month that killed four senior officials, including his brother-in-law.
Syrian state television said Hijab had been fired, but a source in the Jordanian capital Amman said he had been dismissed only after he fled across the border with his family.
"I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution," Hijab said in a statement read in his name by a spokesman and broadcast by al-Jazeera.
Khaled al Hbous, a senior figure in the rebel Free Syrian Army for the area around the capital Damascus, said that his fighters had helped Hijab flee the country: "Between 5:30 and 7:30 this morning we did it," he said. "We secured his entry to Jordan and the Jordanian army took him from us."
The opposition Syrian National Council said a further two ministers and three army generals had defected with Hijab.
Syrian state television reported Hijab's dismissal as government forces appeared to prepare a ground assault to clear battered rebels from Aleppo, the country's biggest city.
Hijab was a top official of the ruling Baath party but, like all other senior defectors so far, he was also a Sunni and had no real authority over a state ruled by the Assads for the past four decades.
Assad appointed Hijab, formerly agriculture minister, as prime minister only in June following a parliamentary election which authorities said was a step towards political reform. Syrian television said Omar Ghalawanji, a deputy prime minister, had been appointed to lead a temporary, caretaker government yesterday.
Hijab, who like much of the opposition comes from Syria's Sunni Muslim majority, is not part of Assad's inner circle, but as the most senior serving civilian official to defect his departure dealt a heavy symbolic blow to an establishment rooted in the president's minority Alawite sect.
His departure is unlikely to have repercussions for Assad's grip on power. That is rooted in the army and a security apparatus dominated by Alawites, which was rocked by a bomb last month that killed four senior officials, including his brother-in-law.
Syrian state television said Hijab had been fired, but a source in the Jordanian capital Amman said he had been dismissed only after he fled across the border with his family.
"I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution," Hijab said in a statement read in his name by a spokesman and broadcast by al-Jazeera.
Khaled al Hbous, a senior figure in the rebel Free Syrian Army for the area around the capital Damascus, said that his fighters had helped Hijab flee the country: "Between 5:30 and 7:30 this morning we did it," he said. "We secured his entry to Jordan and the Jordanian army took him from us."
The opposition Syrian National Council said a further two ministers and three army generals had defected with Hijab.
Syrian state television reported Hijab's dismissal as government forces appeared to prepare a ground assault to clear battered rebels from Aleppo, the country's biggest city.
Hijab was a top official of the ruling Baath party but, like all other senior defectors so far, he was also a Sunni and had no real authority over a state ruled by the Assads for the past four decades.
Assad appointed Hijab, formerly agriculture minister, as prime minister only in June following a parliamentary election which authorities said was a step towards political reform. Syrian television said Omar Ghalawanji, a deputy prime minister, had been appointed to lead a temporary, caretaker government yesterday.
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