US says regime 'crumbling' after Syrian PM's defection

THE WHITE House said yesterday the defection of Syria’s prime minister, Riad Hijab, showed that President Bashar al-Assad’s government was “crumbling from within” and repeated calls for him to step aside.

“The momentum is with the opposition and with the Syrian people,” said a White House spokesman. “Assad cannot restore his control over the country because the Syrian people will not allow it.”

Mr Hijab had earlier declared he had defected and joined the opposition. He is the first cabinet minister and the highest government official to go over to the opposition during the 17-month old rebellion.

Deputy prime minister Omar Ghaliwanji was asked to form a caretaker government.

“I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution,” Mr Hijab said in a statement read on his behalf by spokesman Muhammad al-Etri.

He denied that Mr Hijab, who assumed the post on June 23rd, had been sacked, and said the government had announced his dismissal after it learned of his flight.

Mr Etri said Mr Hijab’s departure was well planned ahead of time in co-operation with the rebel Free Syrian Army. According to Jordanian television, 10 members of his family were also smuggled across the southern border into Jordan, from where he flew to Qatar. Mr Hijab was urging other officials to defect, Mr Etri said.

Syrian analyst George Jabbour said Mr Hijab’s defection was a “significant move” and expressed the hope that “all sides will react rationally” so “no additional blood is shed.”

The expatriate opposition Syrian National Council said two additional ministers and three army generals had accompanied Mr Hijab into exile. However, the claim that finance minister Muhammad Jalilati and Muslim religious endowment minister Muhammad Abdul Sattar al-Sayyed had also defected was denied by them in the official media.

Mr Hijab’s defection was revealed shortly after a bomb exploded on the third floor of the state television building in central Damascus.

The device, smuggled into the studios, injured three people lightly and wreaked a considerable amount of damage.

The three Syrian television channels continued to broadcast, repeatedly showing images of bomb damage. The blast once again demonstrated that rebels could gain access to sensitive facilities in the capital.

Mr Hijab’s defection and the explosion at the state television building occurred as rebel fighters waited for the long-expected army offensive in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial capital.

Rebel units were running low on ammunition and food after heavy army shelling and helicopter gunship attacks on their positions. Resupply has been difficult as attacks by gunships have disrupted routes from Turkey, the rebels’ main base.

Basma Kodmani, Paris spokeswoman for the expatriate opposition Syrian National Council said that Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and, perhaps, Libya were providing “certain kinds of light and conventional weapons” to the rebels, who had also purchased arms on the black market.

The main focus of the fighting in Aleppo has been the southwestern Salaheddin district, where rebels have been under siege for a week. A rebel commander was one of nine killed there, according to the opposition Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

In Aleppo, the military seems to be following the cautious strategy adopted in other cities, where troops have weakened rebel strongholds by bombardment and forced rebel fighters to retreat into pockets from which they could be expelled.

The aim of the army command is to avoid street fighting, where lightly armed gunmen have the advantage over troops operating from armoured vehicles.

Gen Babacar Gaye, head of the UN monitoring mission in Syria, expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Aleppo and its impact on civilians, and called on the parties to “open a dialogue” with the aim of alleviating civilian suffering and bringing the conflict to an end.

– (Additional reporting: Reuters)