AFP / ARABNEWS

Riyad Hijab is sworn in prime minister of Syria by President Bashar Assad in Damascus in this handout file photograph distributed by Syrian News Agency (SANA) on June 26, 2012. (Reuters)

“Hijab and members of his family entered Jordan during the early hours of Wednesday,” Maayatah, also government spokesman, told AFP without elaborating.

The rebel Local Coordination Committees of Syria said Hijab “entered Jordanian territory through barbed wire after having been trapped in (neighboring) Daraa province following the announcement of his defection.”

On Monday, a Jordan-based member of the opposition Syrian National Council, Khalid Zein Al-Abedin, had said Hijab, several members of his family, two ministers and three army officers had crossed over the previous night night.

Abedin said the defection came after “coordination between the Syrian opposition and the (rebel) Free Syrian Army.”
Another member of the opposition had corroborated that, saying, “the Free Syrian Army helped all of them cross the border … last night (Sunday).”

Hijab spokesman Mohammad Otri said on Monday the former premier was to “leave Jordan for Qatar within days.”

NOTE BY THE EDITOR: The oil-$ are waiting in Qatar.