Syrian ex-premier: Regime near collapse: "Based on my experience and my position, the regime is falling apart morally, materially, economically," the former official, Riad Farid Hijab, said at a news conference in Amman, Jordan. "Its military is rusting, and it only controls 30 percent of Syria’s territory."
He added that many high-level civilian and military officials in Syria — "leaders with dignity" — were waiting to defect. Hijab said he fled the Syrian capital, Damascus, because the government had threatened his family and had no reasonable means to end the violence. He also urged the opposition to unify and move ahead with plans for a transitional government and "a civilian democratic state that preserves the right, justice and dignity of all Syrians." But he said he had no interest in a formal position with a post-Assad government, should there be one.
Syria: French FM expects new "spectacular" defections soon: "From the information we have, but we'll see if this is confirmed in the coming days, there are other spectacular defections that will occur," said the French minister as he visited Beirut. He recalled the "very spectacular defections" in recent weeks by the Prime Minister Riad Hijab and General Manaf Tlass, the highest ranking Syrian dissident who was a friend of President Bashar al-Assad.
"All this shows that people from different communities (...) decided to abandon the regime because they see that the only thing that Bashar al-Assad can do now is to murder his own people" said Fabius. "These elements that add to each other are not only spectacular but show that the regime is decaying (...) we obviously want it to go as fast as possible," he said. But, he cautioned, however, the fall of the regime should not be translated "into a rise of extremism. For this, it requires not only the regime be changed, but that security institutions continue to exist. If not we may have the same phenomenon as in Iraq. "
First Syrian in space defects from Assad regime: Before crossing into Turkey, Gen Faris visited the headquarters of the Free Syrian Army in his home town of Aleppo in a show of solidarity with rebel forces battling Assad's troops in Syria's commercial capital. The Anatolia news agency reported that it was the general's fourth attempt to defect.
Gen Faris was born in 1951 in Aleppo, where the Syrian army and air force was pounding rebel positions on Sunday ahead of a threatened ground assault on the northern city. A graduate of the Aleppo's military pilot school in 1973, he joined a Soviet crew on the orbiting space station Mir in 1987, for which he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union and also received the Order of Lenin.
The commander of Assad's elite Republican Guard defected and last I knew was in Turkey, 23 senior General's at last count have defected along with thousands of troops and their commanding officers. After the defection of the fighter jet to Turkey along with his mig23 the remainder have been grounded because of rumors others were attempting to follow.
The rebels soon will have high level Government officials in place to form a new Government and the military if it does not already will soon have a military that will be capable of performing its role as the defender of the new Government. It is China and Russia and their sizable land, air, and naval forces that mysteriously we have heard nothing about since we learned in July that they were headed to Syria for so called exercises.
* Forget it Assad the game is up! Your die hard followers now want you dead and gone and even the Shabiha your hand picked murderers are abandoning you trying to melt back into the countryside they have helped to destroy in your name. Syria as you and your father knew it is gone. Only God knows what will happen now before it spreads throughout the middle east and no one will like it.
* It would behoove Russia to cut its losses and evacuate its people and evacuate its sub base but it will not. With China and Russia both with at least 11 powerful warships "including carriers", 1000 tanks, hundreds of fighter jets, and thousands of soldiers, I absolutely believe they plan on hanging around and fighting for their last naval hold in the middle east. Putin is done cutting and running!
*Putin and Iran are ready to fight for their last significant ally Syria, the bull in the "China"shop is China. Right now China is with Russia but when all is said and done I think it behooves China to side with the west and the Syrian people then when the dust settles if it is as vicious as it may be China will be able to be in a position to take advantageous of it. With its push in the South China seas that is the common sense thing to do!
James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
http://anaverageamericanpatriot.blogspot.com
