Syrian ambassador switches sides

Syria’s ambassador to Iraq has defected to the opposition in protest at the military crackdown by president Bashar al- Assad’s forces against a  16-month uprising, Syrian opposition sources have said.

Nawaf al-Fares, who has close ties to Syrian security, would be the first senior diplomat to quit the embattled government.

A veteran of Mr Assad’s rule, who held senior positions under the late president Hafez al-Assad, Mr Fares is from Deir al-Zor, the eastern city on the road to Iraq, which has been the scene of a ferocious military onslaught by Assad forces.

“This is just the beginning of a series of defections on the diplomatic level. We are in touch with several ambassadors,” said Mohamed Sermini, a member of the main opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council.

The defection of Mr Fares, a Sunni, could be a major blow to Mr Assad, who wants to convince a sceptical world that he is conducting a legitimate defence of his country against foreign-backed armed groups bent on toppling the government.

Mr Fares’ decision to jump ship follows the high-profile flight from Syria last week of Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, also a Sunni and once a close friend of Mr Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has relied on Sunni allies to maintain control of the majority Sunni population.

Brig Gen Tlas fled to Paris and has not spoken of his intentions. Opposition sources said Mr Fares was leaving Iraq but it was not clear where he would go. The first sign of a crack in Syria’s diplomatic ranks comes as Mr Assad won further strong backing from the two major powers resisting western and Gulf Arab pressure to oust him – Russia and China.

China yesterday threw its weight behind UN envoy Kofi Annan, backing his call to include Mr Assad’s ally Iran in internationally-brokered talks to resolve the Syrian crisis, in the face of western opposition.

“China believes that the appropriate resolution of the Syria issue cannot be separated from the countries in the region, especially the support and participation of those countries that are influential on relevant sides in Syria,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said in Beijing.

UN Security Council veto-holders China and Russia have for the past year blocked efforts by Washington and its European and Gulf Arab allies to turn the screws on Mr Assad.

Russia resisted calls from the Syrian National Council to make Mr Assad’s resignation a condition for talks on a political transition. Talks ended in discord as an opposition leader said Moscow’s policies were helping prolong the bloodshed.

“The Syrian people don’t understand Russia’s position. How can Russia keep supplying arms? How can they keep vetoing resolutions? There needs to be an end to mass killings,” said Burhan Ghalioun, former leader of the Syrian National Council.

Mr Assad’s opponents say just under 13,000 armed and unarmed opponents of Mr Assad, and around 4,300 members of security forces loyal to Damascus, have been killed since he launched a crackdown 16 months ago, using tanks and helicopter gunships to attack rebel strongholds inside Syria’s biggest cities.

Activists yesterday reported a new bombardment of rebel areas of Homs, a hotbed of opposition to Mr Assad, as well as fighting in many other parts of the country.

Syria’s army fired missiles yesterday in an exercise to show its ability to “destroy any enemy targets”. The tests concluded five days of war games, which analysts say are a warning to Mr Assad’s foes.

Opposition figures have been calling for a no-fly zone and Nato strikes against Syrian forces.

Mr Annan plunged into a tussle between the major powers on Tuesday, insisting that Iran, which strongly backs Mr Assad and is regarded as an adversary of the West and Gulf Arabs, had a role to play in the drive to relaunch stalled peace efforts and begin talks towards a political transition.

The reaction from two other Security Council veto-holders was not encouraging.

“I don’t think anybody with a straight face could argue that Iran has had a positive impact on developments in Syria,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.