The situation has been pretty murderous for a long time now.

What would cause the prime minister to finally defect at this late date other than a sudden expectation the regime will actually lose? Wouldn’t he still be held partially liable for what went before?

Al jaz & BBC are leading propaganda mouthpieces for the Evil-5 terrorist sponsors of the war against Syria. presstv reports nothing. RT reports:

Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has been sacked, state TV reported. His current whereabouts are unknown, and there are conflicting reports as to whether he has fled the country.

Hijab, Syria’s former Minister of Agriculture, was appointed Prime Minister in June following parliamentary elections in the country.

The ex-Prime Minister is currently in Jordan, where he fled with his family, Reuters cited a Jordanian official as saying.

Hijab’s former spokesperson Muhammad el-Etri confirmed the report. The former Prime Minister has defected from the Syrian government and traveled to Jordan with ten family members, where he will join the Syrian opposition forces, el-Etri told Al-Jazeera.

However, Jordanian Minister of Information Samih al-Maaytah denied that Hijab is in the country.

Meanwhile, Al-Arabiya reported that the defected premier would travel to Qatar.

Omar Ghalawanji, the country’s Minister of Local Administration, will temporarily assume Hijab’s duties before a new Prime Minster is appointmented, the Syrian TV report said.

The news comes less than a month after four key Syrian military officials, including the Defense Minister, were killed in a suicide bombing at a national security building in the capital of Damascus.

Levels of violence in the country remain high. A bomb blast at a state TV and radio building in Damascus wounded three people on Monday. Fighting continues in Aleppo, where government troops and armed opposition forces are battling for control of the city.

­
Opposition alleges more defections

­In addition to Hijab, three other members of Assad’s cabinet have defected, opposition sources claimed.

Three army generals also fled the country, separate rebel reports said. The allegations were quickly picked up by international media.

Treasurer Mohamad Gillati, one of the cabinet members alleged to have fled, denied the rumors of his defection in a
live Syrian TV broadcast.

Link.

According to the BBC, he’s a Sunni. This thing appears to be turning into a sectarian civil war: Alawites and Shiites vs. Sunnis. Syria is a Sunni majority country ruled by an Alawite family. Assad is a monster, but if Assad falls, the half million or more Sunni Iraqis who fled to Syria might be in a better position to attack the Shiite government in Iraq, so careful what you wish for.

While Al Jazeera has been rooting so hard for the rebels that they have lost objectivity, RT is an organ of the Russian government, Assad’s most powerful remaining ally, so they are not trustworthy either.

from what i understand, the regime is just in control of the major cities and the urban environment makes its difficult to stage a war and easier for whats left of the army to keep control. we’ll probably see a drip, drip, drip of people jumping ship when they can until some higher ups turn on Assad

Who in the middle east has been fomenting sectarianism lo these many years? Saudi Arabia. Who is buying the guns and sending soldiers to fight against Assad? Saudi Arabia. Who holds hands and kisses Saudi Princes?

Both sources reflect an interest in events from a specific perspective. Neither is better, really. I read and watch RT with more interest because it gives me a vision of events that the US does not share and therefore is not reported in the usual western sources.

YSD, Can you give me a multiple choice? I do better on multiple choice.

That’s OK. I got it, the “kisses” give it away doesn’t it??????

So, an iron fisted, secular, totalitarian dictator is being ousted by Muslim extremists? Oh, joy. How long will it be until we are, (once again), being shot at by our own weapons?

What would cause the prime minister to finally defect at this late date other than a sudden expectation the regime will actually lose?

Hijab has been PM for only two months. The rebels characterized his appointment as a sham, because he was politically close to Assad. Obviously Assad’s vetting process was insufficient — that CIA-provided watch should have been a clue. Now poor Hijab is on his way to Doha and a life of riches, unless Assad’s guys catch up with him or some member of his family. These things go down hard.

For defections, it will become clear very quickly who has defected and who hasn’t, because the real defectors will issue statements, be on video etc.

I agree that Assad’s vetting process is circumspect, what is also lost amongst all the ‘noise,’ is the fact most of those ‘defectors’ were Sunnis, not Alawites, Shi’a, nor Kurdish…! And the Kurds are the biggest enigma, amongst all the ethnicities embroiled in this ME imbroglio…! 8-(

And considering the fact Hijab was in office for only two months… Syria Prime Minister Riad Hijab’s defection was months in the making: aide…

*gah*