‘The regime is crumbling, join the revolution’ urges defector

President Bashar al-Assad controls less than a third of Syria and his power is crumbling, his former prime minister has said in his first public appearance since he defected earlier this month.

Riyad Hijab told a news conference in Jordan yesterday that the morale of Syrian authorities was low after grappling for 17 months to crush a popular uprising and armed insurgency against Mr Assad. “The regime is collapsing, spiritually and financially, as it escalates militarily,” he said. “It no longer controls more than 30 per cent of Syria.”

Mr Hijab, a Sunni Muslim, was not in Mr Assad’s inner circle. But as the most senior civilian official to defect, his flight after two months in the job looked embarrassing for the president.

Mr Hijab is from the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, where rebels claimed to have shot down an army MiG-23 warplane on Monday. Mr Hijab said his journey to Jordan took three days,.

Activists claim more than 20,000 people have been killed in the struggle to oust Mr Assad since March 2011.

Mr Hijab said he felt “pain in his soul” over the shelling of rebel strongholds.

“I was powerless to stop the injustice,” Mr Hijab added He called on “honourable leaders” in Syria to defect. “Syria is full of honourable officials and military leaders waiting for the chance to join the revolution,” he said. “I urge the army to follow the example of Egypt’s and Tunisia’s armies – take the side of the people.”