AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE ARABNEWS
Monday 6 August 2012
DAMASCUS: Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab has defected to the opposition, a monitoring group said on Monday, as state media announced the premier’s abrupt dismissal just two months after his appointment.
If confirmed, Hijab’s defection would be the highest-ranking of the 17-month uprising, and a new blow to President Bashar Assad, who has already seen no fewer than 31 of his generals cross the border into Turkey to join the rebellion and a growing number of his ambassadors break ranks.
Hijab was a leading Sunni Muslim in Assad’s minority Alawite-dominated government. His home province of Deir Ezzor in the northeast has been one of the key battlegrounds of the conflict and seen a mounting death toll from operations by the army in recent weeks.
“Riad Hijab has defected from the regime,” the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, Rami Abdel Rahman, told AFP.
Abdel Rahman said there were conflicting reports on Hijab’s current whereabouts.
“Some sources say he has arrived in Jordan, others say he was arrested before making his escape,” said Abdel Rahman.
State television reported that Deputy Prime Minister and Local Government Minister Omar Ghalawanji had been appointed caretaker premier.
“Prime Minister Riad Hijab has been dismissed,” it said in a terse report.