BEIRUT, July 6, (Agencies): A top general close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his family has defected, dealing the embattled leader another blow, a source close to the regime told AFP on Friday.
“General Munaf Tlass defected three days ago,” the source close to the Syrian government said on condition of anonymity.
Tlass, the highest-ranking military officer to have abandoned the Assad regime, was on his way to Paris to join his wife and sister, Nahed Ojjeh, widow of Saudi millionaire arms dealer Akram Ojjeh, said the source.
France, hosting a meeting of about 100 countries from the so-called Friends of Syria group on Friday, confirmed the report.
“A senior official from the Syrian regime, a commander in the Republican Guard, has defected and is headed for Paris,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a news conference.
He did not explicitly name Tlass, however.
Tlass, who is in his late 40s, was a member of the inner circle in Syria, and a childhood friend of Bashar al-Assad.
A general in the elite Republican Guard charged with protecting the regime, he is the son of former defence minister Mustafa Tlass, a close friend of Assad’s late father and predecessor, Hafez.
The Sunni official’s family is originally from the rebel-held town of Rastan in the central province of Homs that is currently besieged and being bombarded by government forces.
Tlass was sidelined by the regime more than a year ago after being deemed unreliable.
His defection comes two weeks after a colonel in the privileged Syrian air force won political asylum after landing his MiG-21 fighter in neighbouring Jordan.
reconciliation
According to the source with close ties to Damascus, Tlass undertook several unsuccessful reconciliation missions between regime loyalists and rebels in Rastan and the southern province of Daraa.
Months later he gave up his military uniform and opted for civilian clothing. He set up residence in Damascus, where he let his beard and hair grow long.
Another source in Damascus told AFP that Tlass’s relations with the authorities became irreconcilable after the regime’s fierce assault on the Homs district of Baba Amr in February that cost hundreds of lives.
Tlass reportedly refused to lead the unit tasked with reclaiming the former rebel stronghold, and Assad subsequently told him to stay at home.
The source said Tlass was furious when Assad refused to promote him from brigadier general to divisional general or commander, when the yearly promotion list was published on July 1.
Sources close to Tlass say his family is now in Dubai, including his businessman brother Firas. When the uprising against Assad’s regime broke out in March last year, the businessman wrote a blog post supporting the uprising.
Tlass’s cousin Abdel Razzak defected from the military several months ago, and heads the rebel Free Syrian Army’s Farouk Battalion in Homs.
“If his defection is confirmed, it will be a painful blow to the Syrian regime and its inner circle, because he is close to the ruling family,” Rami Abdel Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP.
The United States said on Tuesday that the growing number of defections showed that the support for the Assad regime was steadily crumbling.
“There have been, as you know, countless defections,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
“We see this stream increasing, and we think it reflects not only the stress that Assad’s military is under, but increasingly his officers and his rank and file are voting with their feet against his regime.”
A US official asking to remain anonymous told AFP that high-level military defections were proof that people once loyal to the regime also had a role to play in a post-revolt Syria.
“When you can... show those people that if they don’t have blood on their hands, if they haven’t been embezzlers, there is a place for them in the new Syria, that also increases the chance that you can peel them off Assad,” the official said.
“And you’ve seen the number of high-placed military defections... starting to vote with their feet, vote with their planes,” he added.
The Britain-based Observatory estimates that more than 16,500 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s rule erupted in mid-March 2011.
Meeting
A world meeting on Syria urged the UN Friday to use the threat of sanctions to force change in Syria.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also rounded on Russia and China, telling delegates from over 100 countries gathered in Paris that the two veto-wielding UN Security Council members were blocking progress towards peace.
The “Friends of Syria” meeting insisted that Assad would have to quit and sought a resolution under the UN charter’s Chapter 7, which provides for possible sanctions and military action.
But it stressed that the immediate action under Article 41 provided only for non-military intervention.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle backed the call for non-military action for the time being, saying force should only be discussed “when the implementation of the sanctions has not really made the progress they should have”.
French President Francois Hollande also pushed for the Security Council to get tough with Damascus, while the Syrian opposition called for humanitarian corridors and a no-fly zone.
A peace plan drawn up by former UN chief Kofi Annan, which insists on a cessation of violence by all sides, has made little headway and activists say an estimated 16,500 people have now died in the 16-month uprising.
A meeting last weekend of world powers in Geneva agreed to a transition plan that the Syria opposition, the West and Russia have interpreted differently, but Clinton insisted the plan amounted to a call for Assad to go.
“It is imperative to go back to the Security Council and demand implementation of Kofi Annan’s plan including the Geneva communique that Russia and China have already agreed to,” Clinton said.
“We should go back and ask for a resolution in the Security Council that imposes real and immediate consequences for non-compliance, including sanctions,” ranging from economic measures to military force, she added.
The West insists Assad should not be part of any new unity government and the Syrian opposition rejected the Geneva talks as making concessions to Damascus under pressure from Russia.
Taking a tough tone, Clinton said she thought Russia and China did “not believe they are paying any price at all for standing up on behalf of the regime”.
“The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear, that Russia and China will pay a price. They are holding up progress, blockading it. That is no longer tolerable,” Clinton said.
Support
The State of Kuwait affirmed here on Friday its support for international efforts aimed at nudging the Syrian government honor its obligations toward the world community regarding domestic crisis of the troubled nation.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, said in an address to the international conference that broad participation in the convention reflected great concern of the international community for plight of the brotherly Syrian people.
Noting that the world should bear responsibilities of political, humanitarian and moral dimensions toward the Syrian people plight, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid, also the Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs, called on the attendees “to translate their broad presence” into concrete measures in support of legitimate aspirations of the of the Syrian people for establishing a plural and democratic political system.
Elaborating in his statement to a large number of representatives of super powers and states taking part in the conference, Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid said the previous conventions that had been held at this level, in Tunis and Istanbul, had substantially contributed in rallying international backing for cause of the Syrian people.
He stressed on necessity of capitalizing on outcomes of the two past conferences and the road map that was drawn up during the Geneva international contact group, setting broad-lines for power transition in the country. He also indicated, in this respect, at “the joint consensus document,” issued by the Geneva meeting, that also included proposals for the interim period for ruling in Syria.
“Such developments should prompt us at our meeting today to exert further pressure on the Syrian government to coerce it honor its obligations through immediate, full and literal implementation of the plan of the UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan and Security Council resolution 2042 and 2043,” Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid said.
The State of Kuwait, in its capacity as the current chairman of the Arab League Council, calls for intensifying efforts by the international community to secure urgent humanitarian aid for the Syrian people.
Sheikh Sabah Al-Khalid expressed gratitude for the French Government for hosting this crucial meeting, hailing Paris’ noticeable role regarding international and regional issues. He also thanked Tunisia and Turkey for hosting the previous meetings at this level.
Control
Syria’s army took control of the rebel stronghold of Khan Sheikhoun in northern Idlib province on Friday after an assault on the town backed by helicopters, an insurgent spokesman said.
Fighting also erupted between Free Syrian Army rebels and loyalist forces in the Kfar Souseh quarter of central Damascus after security forces moved in to stop a protest against President Bashar al-Assad near the Nouaim mosque. The district is home to major intelligence and secret police installations.
“The Free Army withdrew from the town (Khan Sheikhoun) last night after it ran out of ammunition. Assad’s army is in control of it,” said Abu Hamam, a rebel spokesman. “They are burning the houses. They have burned my own house. I see the smoke covering the sky from where I am now,” he said.
Khan Sheikhoun, a town of more than 70,000 people in rural Idlib province, straddles the western highway linking Damascus to Aleppo. It has been one of many fronts contested by the Syrian army which aims to crush a 16-month revolt against Assad.
Activists say 80 percent of residents have now fled.
The rebels said they had suffered heavy losses in battles which intensified on Wednesday night.
“This is a very fierce operation that is going on now. It seems Assad has sent all of his army to crush Khan Sheikhoun and the towns around it,” Abu Hamam said.
In the Damascus district, explosions were heard from fields near the mosque and at least two armoured vehicles moved to the area, according to opposition activists. They said six people had been injured, one critically.
“Automatic rifles and machineguns are being used,” a witness said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Government intelligence and secret police installations in the Kfar Souseh district are now ringed with concrete barriers and walls. Residents say fighting there has become more frequent and more fierce in the past two weeks.
Security forces also fired at an anti-Assad demonstration in the al-Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the southern edge of Damascus and casualties were reported, opposition sources in Damascus told Reuters.
Government forces also fired mortar rounds at the rebellious Qadam neighbourhood on the edge of city and at the suburb of Daraya. No casualty figures have yet come in, the sources said.
In western Syria, army artillery was reported to be shelling the town of Madaya in the Sunni Muslim Zabadani region in the foothills of the mountain range that separates Syria from Lebanon, according to opposition campaigners from the region.