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Syria premier defects to anti-Assad opposition
AMMAN - Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has defected to the opposition seeking to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, a spokesman for Hijab said on Monday, marking one of the most high profile desertions from the Damascus government.
This is a big problem for Pencilneck. Hijab perhaps was not a member of the innermost circle, but he can claim to the rubes and Westerners (but I repeat myself) that he, not Pencilneck, is the legitimate government in Syria. It's great window-dressing at least for the rebels.
Syrian state TV said Hijab had been fired, but an official source in Amman said the dismissal followed his defection to neighboring Jordan with his family.

"I announce today my defection from the killing and terrorist regime and I announce that I have joined the ranks of the freedom and dignity revolution. I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution," Hijab said in a statement read in his name by the spokesman, which was broadcast on Al Jazeera television.

Syrian state TV announced Hijab's dismissal as government forces appeared to prepare a ground assault to clear battered rebels from Aleppo, the country's biggest city.

Assad appointed Hijab, a former agriculture minister, as prime minister only in June following a parliamentary election which authorities said was a step towards political reform but which opponents dismissed as a sham.

"Hijab is in Jordan with his family," said the Jordanian official source, who did not want to be further identified. The source said Hijab had defected to Jordan before the announcement of his sacking.

Syrian TV said Omar Ghalawanji, who was previously a deputy prime minister, had been appointed to lead a temporary caretaker government on Monday.
Posted by: Steve White 2012-08-06
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=349732