Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has confirmed his defection from Al Assad’s government and that he is in Jordan, thus refuting the Syrian media which has suggested that he was dismissed by Al Assad.

“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,” Hijab said in a statement read by his spokesman, Muhammed el-Etri, according to Al Jazeera. “I announce that I am from today a soldier in this blessed revolution.”

Hijab, former Minister of Agriculture, was elected prime minister in June after the parliamentary elections. Syrian authorities said this was a decisive step towards the path of democracy, while the opposition denounced it as a fraud.

Apparently, the now former Syrian prime minister has left the country along with at least two ministers and three military officers.

Hijab is thus added to the growing list of defectors, becoming the highest-ranking official to defect from Bashar Al-Assad’s government since the beginning of the uprising. It all started with the Oil Deputy Minister Abdo Houssameddine, who announced on March 8 his desertion and became the first government men to join the opposition.

Diplomats such as the Syrian ambassador in Iraq, his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, and four deputies have also crossed the border to join the revolution since civil war started.

Hundreds of soldiers, including senior military personnel have also turned their back on Assad’s regime.

According to The Guardian, “Hijab’s defection had been planned for more than two months” but the actual implementation of the plan had be “delayed on many occasions.” Haaretz Israeli newspaper reports that “Hijab had started to plan how he would defect from the first day that he was appointed as prime minister.”

Omar Ghalawanji, a local government minister, has been appointed to take on Hijab’s office at the moment, official Syrian television announced.

The United States believes that the defection of Syria’s prime minister shows that President Assad grip on power is loosening: “This is the latest indication that Assad has lost control of Syria and that the momentum is with the opposition forces and the Syrian people,” says Tommy Vietor, the National Security Council spokesman.

“It’s clear that these defections are reaching the highest levels of the Syrian government and demonstrate that the Syrian people believe Assad’s days are numbered,” Vietor continued.

The news on Hijab’s defection was released just hours after a bomb ripped through the state TV building in the capital Damascus.

Image Courtesy of  jan kranendonk / Shutterstock.com

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The conflict between Turkey and Syria is heating up. On Sunday, June 30, the Turkish army sent  six F-16 planes to do emergency takeoffs on their border with Syria in response to the three jets that the Syrian army sent over on Saturday. Turkey recognizes that last Saturday’s action was not a violation of Turkish air space, but the nearness of these planes was enough for them to order a response.

The reality is that Turkey has become more aggressive towards Syria since a Turkish F-4 was brought down by the Syrian troops on  June 22. Turkish response came fast. Their armed forces deployed launchers and anti areal batteries missiles against Syria. Turkish Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said that they will “regard… as a threat” any type of military element that gets close to the frontier.

Officially, Turkey does not want confrontation with Syria, but the reality is that they are putting pressure on others, such as the United States, to stop the Syrian conflict. Turkey has gone from friendship to criticism. Now they support the Syrian National Council and the Free Syrian Army. They also asked for the creation of intermediate zones and humanitarian corridors in the border area.

Meanwhile, NATO has insisted that it is necessary to find a political solution, but has approved the steps that Turkey is following in order to defend their land and population.

In the other side, Rusia says that the felled Turkish airship on June 22 was flying in Syrian air space. Moscow assures the public that they have evidence that can prove it. Turkey has not taken long to defend themselves and has made a response that denies the information that accuses Turkey of flying in Syria’s air space.

The Syrian Minister of Information has stated that the armed forces shot down the plane by mistake because they thought that it was an Israeli craft. As the Minister explained, most of the Turkish and Israelis aircrafts are made by the United States. This is what confused the Syrian forces, and made them think that it was an Israeli plane.

In the meantime, the Syrian Civil War, which according to United Nations has caused more than 10,000 victims, keeps on going. A prominent Syrian Al Assad opposition, Fawaaz al Tello, has made a call to the United States asking for help. He is demanding weapons for the rebels, for fighting the Al Assad regime. The Free Syrian Army has expressed that they need weapons such as rocket launchers in order to destroy the tanks and army helicopters from the Syrian Army.

The United States does not seem to be convinced to give weapons to the Syrians because most of the rebels are Islamist, so there is a level of suspicion surrounding it. What it seems clear is that all of the steps need to be given careful consideration because the conflict could explode at any moment.

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Rarely do you find a person with an interest in Middle Eastern politics, or a citizen of the region who is not familiar with the renowned Al-Assad family of Syria. The Assads, originally from Al-Qurdaha in North West Syria, are members of the minority Al-Alawite sect (branch of Islam) that have ruled and controlled Syria’s foreign and domestic policies for over four decades with an iron fist.

In comparison with the region’s dictators, the Assad family has created an infamous reputation for being the Middle East’s most violent and brutal regime. Father of current President Bashar Al-Assad, Hafez Al-Assad’s rise to power took place throughout 1964-1971.

A member of the Syrian Ba’athist party that in practice was ruling Syria at that time, he jumped through military ranks which resulted in him moving from Major to General in less than one year. This was followed by an appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Air Force, Minister of Defense, and finally President after an intra-party coup which resulted in the 1970 Syrian Corrective Revolution.

Throughout his rule, Al Assad’s reign was marked with the use of extreme violence to sustain his rule. A famous landmark of his career was the 1982 Hama Massacre which was personally conducted by Rifaat Al Assad (Hafiz’s brother) and executed by the Syrian army. The target of the massacre was to brutally suppress a Sunni opposition against Al-Assad and ended with the death of some 40,000 citizens.

Ironically, Bashar al Assad reached power in a similar way to his father. Residing in London to finish his medical residency as an ophthalmologist, he was called back to Syria in 1994 after the sudden death of his brother Bassil, who was initially being groomed from birth to be his father’s successor.

All eyes turned to Bashar who made Colonel by 1999, and following his father death in 2000, he was voted as leader of the Ba’ath Party, President, and Commander in Chief through a public referendum.

The referendum that was voted on the day Hafiz died, lowered the minimum age for a Presidential candidate to 34, Bashar’s age at the time, and Bashar was made President with an astonishing 97.2% of the votes.

The horror of the regime today

The hand of the Syrian regime does not only reach its own territories, it extends and spreads fear across its border through several political allies that might do the unthinkable to please it. Despite that, one should not see the suffering of the brave Syrian people and remain silent anymore.

What you see on the news or internet of shooting or bombarding or physical abuse are only minor tricks of what the regime really has up its sleeves. The real horror presents itself in the inhumane torture that goes on in prisons and investigations rooms.

Bear in mind that the Syrian regime does not rely on physical torture only, its main objective is to achieve severe psychological damage to their victims via the latter. With the extensive use of force and violence, the Syrian Regime aims to break the will of all citizens that oppose it through degrading human value in ways you can’t imagine.

Through planning, training or “experimenting” on a handful of citizens, and execution of their means using large masses, the Syrian regime has displayed high professionalism in its ways and earned first place in comparison with other Arab governments as the Middle East’s most ruthless and vicious regime.

The methods of torture vary depending on the investigators sadistic ratio of pleasure or how bad they need information to unjustly charge someone with a crime, which makes what went on in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo a walk in the park.

Men, women, and children whipped with stinging electric wires. Spark plugs wired to car batteries being attached to victims’ toes, fingers, or even genitals with high current electricity running through them as their tormentor pleases.

Prisoners forced to drink a large quantity of liquids and then tying up genitals, thus forbidding the victims from using the bathroom and making them feel like their bladder will literally explode. The latest case was the holding down of prisoners’ faces towards the breach (rear) of an RPG launcher, followed by firing the RPG, and scorching the victims’ faces with the immense heat emitted from the launching.

One of course cannot forget the “usual” methods the various Syrian governmental personnel carry out. Beatings, blindfolding, handcuffing, deprivation from sleep, and being squeezed into tires are means of sending a message to all that oppose the Syrian regime.
Following China and Russia’s veto in the Security Council session to condemn Syria’s acts of violence on its own people, the regime freely continues to carry on all sorts of vicious methods to try and silence the voices calling for freedom.

What is more saddening is that the Syrian people have called for international interference and are being massacred on a daily basis without any official condemnation for merely political interests of super and regional powers. The apple does not fall far away from the tree, and Bashar Al Assad continues to carry his father’s legacy of brutality. How long can the Syrian people endure this, only time can tell.

Image Courtesy of   http://www.flickr.com/photos/panarmenian_photo/

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