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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Defection stirs hope of Assad's downfall
BEIRUT -- A string of high-profile defections from the Syrian regime has stirred hope in the West that President Bashar Assad's inner circle will start abandoning him in greater numbers, hastening his downfall.
But the tightly protected regime has largely held together over the course of the 16-month-old uprising, driven by a mixture of fear and loyalty.
The latest official to flee, the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, announced he was joining the revolution, asserting Thursday that only force will drive Assad from power. He is the most senior diplomat to abandon Assad.
"There is no road map ever with Bashar Assad, because any plan, any statement that is agreed on internationally he delays on and ignores," Fares told the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. "There is no way that he can be pushed from power without force, and the Syrian people realize this."
Syria's Foreign Ministry denounced Fares, saying he should face "legal and disciplinary accountability."
In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell hailed what he called the "first major diplomatic defection," adding: "We think this a wider sign that the regime is feeling the pressure. The pressure is up and the regime is really starting to fall apart."
Fares is the second prominent Syrian to break with the regime in less than a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, an Assad confidant and son of a former defence minister, defected last week, but has not spoken publicly.
Assad's regime has suffered a steady stream of low-level army defectors, who have joined a group of dissidents known as the Free Syrian Army, now numbering in the tens of thousands. There have been several high-level defections in the past -- including a Syrian fighter pilot who flew his plane to neighbouring Jordan during a training mission in June in a brazen move.
Although the defections are notable, Assad's regime has remained remarkably airtight, particularly compared with the hemorrhaging of Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle in Libya in 2011.
-- The Associated Press
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition July 13, 2012 A18
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