Appalled at the massacre of the Syrian people, prominent diplomat defects
Damascus (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Nawaf
al-Fares, Syrian ambassador to Iraq,
has defected from the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the Baath Party. The fight
against terrorism launched by the President has now become a "horrible
massacre" against the Syrian people. The diplomat announced his
resignation in a statement to the Qatari channel al-Jazeera.
"I urge all honest members of this party - he said - I to follow my path
because the regime has turned it [the party] to an instrument to kill people
and their aspiration to freedom." The ambassador appealed to the army to
join the revolution and begin to defend the people and the homeland against
foreign enemies, not by killing innocent people.
Fares, a Sunni Muslim born in Deir al-Zor, Syria's
eastern city to the border with Iraq
is a veteran of the Damascus
government, active in the days of Hafez al-Assad, father of the President. He
is the second leading diplomat who turns his back to the president. The first
was Bassam Imadi, Syrian ambassador in Sweden, now a member of the Syrian
National Council. Another major defection was that of Tlas Manaf, a general from
a Sunni family and personal friend of Assad, who in recent weeks has left the
country seeking asylum in France.
According Imadi defections are a sign that diplomats and members of the regime sense
the imminent end of Assad. "We should consider [Fares] as someone
very close to the regime - he said - we
should also remember that he is also calling on other ambassadors to resign,
which means that others will follow suit".
Meanwhile, the UN has prepared a new plan to end the violence. The draft text -
the fruit of the Paris
conference of July 6 - orders the Syrian regime to cease "within ten
days," the use of heavy weapons against rebellious cities'', or risk "immediate" new economic and diplomatic
sanctions as provided by Article 41 of the UN Charter.
There are no end to clashes between the army and rebels of the Free Syrian Army
and foreign Islamist militants. Overnight there were clashes in the capital's
neighborhoods and Ibril. In Homs
attempts at reconciliation are in progress between the various families thanks
to the "Mussalaha" launched by Christian religious leaders,
Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox.