Tuesday, Aug 07, 2012
(From THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
By Margaret Coker
BEIRUT -- Syria's government lost its highest-ranking Sunni member, Prime Minister Riad Hijab, in what his spokesman called a defection to the opposition as the rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad inflames sectarian emotion in the Middle East.
Mr. Hijab, a veteran ruling-party member who had been premier since June, left Syria along with dozens of family members to join the rebels, his spokesman told journalists from Amman, Jordan.
Syrian state television, projecting an atmosphere of calm, reported that Mr. Assad had fired the prime minister and replaced him with another veteran government cadre.
The whereabouts of Mr. Hijab and the motivations for his departure from office weren't clear. He didn't appear in public on Monday. An official from Jordan said Mr. Hijab hadn't entered his country, despite earlier claims in Arab media that he had fled there.
Reports of Mr. Hijab's defection sparked a wave of enthusiastic statements of confidence by Syrian rebels, who have sustained heavy losses over the past week of fighting with government forces.
The latest government change comes fewer than three weeks after a bomb attack killed four of Mr. Assad's top security officials.
Mr. Hijab's departure is mostly a symbolic blow to the regime, political analysts say. While he was likely to have insight into some of the regime's financial secrets, given his position of approving policies of the oil and finance ministers, his job wasn't connected to the regime's security agencies and had no role in military operations, the analysts said.
"This is a symbolic blow, but he was not essential to security situation. I'm not even sure he made any decisions himself," said Nadim Shehadi, associate fellow at think tank Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa program.
Meanwhile, the head of the United Nations observer mission in Syria expressed alarm at the intensifying danger facing civilians in Aleppo, a city of more than two million people. Residents said government fighter planes were bombing in Aleppo's neighborhood of Shakoor on Monday, causing a multistory apartment building to crumble.
Videos posted on YouTube by rebel sympathizers showed graphic images of mangled bodies being pulled from the rubble. A resident said an estimated 40 people had been inside the building when it was hit. That number couldn't be independently confirmed.
In Damascus, Reuters reported that three of 48 Iranians taken hostage by rebels over the weekend had died. A member of the rebel unit that seized the Iranians said the deaths were caused by government shelling in the neighborhood where the hostages were being held. Those claims couldn't be confirmed.
Mr. Assad's closest ally is Shiite-dominated Iran, while the rebels' main backers are Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, all Sunni-led governments.
The apparent defection of Mr. Hijab adds to the ranks of Sunnis who have turned against the regime, which is controlled by the Alawite sect of Shiite Islam from which the Assad family hails.
Mr. Hijab's exit after two months in his post shows how the regime is retrenching to preserve the dominance of the Alawites, Mr. Shehadi said. "What it really shows is how the regime is folding into itself," he said.
For years, the Sunni business community and powerful tribes helped the Assads maintain their legitimacy. Now, those supporters are peeling away from the ruling family, leaving the country or joining the rebellion.
Al-Jazeera, the Qatar-based news channel, reported that Mr. Hijab was en route to Doha. Those reports couldn't be immediately confirmed.
It also wasn't clear whether Mr. Hijab would seek a leadership role in the rebel opposition's political ranks, or if he was only seeking a haven for his extended family.
Mr. Hijab had an unglamorous government career before being plucked from his post as agriculture minister to become premier in early June, according to two analysts who closely follow Syrian affairs.
Samir Nashar, a member of the Syrian National Council, which is based in Istanbul, said that his branch of the rebel leadership didn't have any contact with Mr. Hijab ahead of the news of his defection. He said, however, it was unlikely that the former official could have escaped from Syria with his large extended family without help of the Free Syrian Army, given the extent of Syrian government surveillance on its top members.
"These are historic decisions and it is time [for government officials] to make decisions and abandon this sinking ship," Mr. Nashar said.
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Leila Hatoum in Dubai and Rima Abushakra in Beirut contributed to this article.
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Top Defections
Some high-profile departures from Assad's regime
-- In August 2011, Adnan Bakkour, attorney general of Hama, the central city, announces he has defected.
-- In January, Imad Ghalioun, member of parliament, leaves the country to join the opposition, saying the Syrian people are suffering sweeping human-rights violations.
-- Brig. Gen. Mostafa Ahmad al-Sheik flees to Turkey in January, making him the highest-ranking officer yet to quit.
-- Two generals, a colonel and two sergeants are reported to defect and cross from Syria into Turkey in March.
-- In March, Abdo Hussameldin, an oil-ministry deputy, becomes the highest-ranking civilian official to join the opposition.
-- In June, a fighter pilot is granted political asylum by Jordan after landing his jet at a military air base there.
-- In early July, Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, a commander in the Republican Guard elite military unit and a longtime friend of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, leaves the country to join family members in France.
-- Ambassador to Iraq Nawaf Fares announces his resignation on July 11, becoming the first serving ambassador to defect.
-- Prime Minister Riad Hijab, the highest-ranking official and Sunni to defect from Assad's government, flees Syria, his spokesman says Monday; Syria says he was fired. Current whereabouts unconfirmed.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
07-08-12 0409GMT
