Senior Syria diplomat defects
ISTANBUL, Turkey — The Syrian ambassador to Iraq has defected, denouncing President Bashar Assad in a TV statement Wednesday and becoming the most senior diplomat to abandon the regime during a bloody 16-month uprising.
Nawaf Fares, a former provincial governor, is the second prominent Syrian to break with the Assad government in less than a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlas, an Assad confidant and son of a former defense minister, fled Syria last week, buoying Western powers and anti-regime activists, who expressed hope that other high-ranking defections would follow.
In a statement broadcast on the pan-Arab satellite TV channel Al Jazeera, Fares said he was resigning and joining the opposition. Wearing a dark suit and reading from a prepared text in what appeared to be a large office, Fares harshly criticized Assad.
"I'm announcing from this moment on that I'm siding with the revolution in Syria," he said, according to Al Jazeera's translation into English. He called on all Syrians to abandon Assad.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-syria-sanctions-20120712,0,5687994.story
