French actively aiding Syria defectors

France is seeking to aid more high-profile defections from the regime of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, the French foreign minister said yesterday.

Laurent Fabius said France had already helped General Manaf Tlas flee and would extend help to others.

Speaking to parliament’s foreign affairs committee, he said: “It’s our role. Our agencies are active. ”

Gen Tlas, one of the most senior members of Assad’s rule to flee Syria, said on Monday he had defected in July with the help of French special forces.

Mr Fabius publicly confirmed for the first time that France had helped Gen Tlas escape Syria and said he had met the general to discuss Syria’s future “Why? Because we think that when there is somebody senior who wants to fight against Bashar al-Assad and to leave Syria, we help them,” he said.

After Gen Tlas, premier Riyad Hijab’s defection at the start of August was the latest sign of prominent members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority abandoning Mr Assad. There has been no sign yet that members of his mainly Alawite inner circle are losing their will to fight. Assad himself is a member of the offshoot sect of Shi’ite Islam.

A French diplomatic source said last week that a number of Alawite figures wanted to defect but wanted to take their families with them.

Meanwhile, actress Angelina Jolie visited Syrian refugees at a camp in Jordan. The Hollywood star, who is also the UN refugee agency’s special envoy, met women refugees at the Zaatari camp, which hosts about 30,000 Syrians displaced by the conflict.

“I am very concerned, the world is very concerned,” she said. “What is very heartbreaking is when Syrian people ask you why you think no-one is able to find a solution for them.”