22 May 2013

Monday, 06 August 2012 14:17

Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab has defected to Jordan

Related Video

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association)- Jordanian official source said on Monday, prompting Syria to announce he had been sacked and replaced by a caretaker premier.

"Hijab is in Jordan with his family," said the source, who did not want to be further identified.

Hijab's defection was one of the most high profile desertions from President Bashar al-Assad's political and military circles. Hijab, a Sunni Muslim from Syria's Sunni province of Deir al-Zor, was also a ruling Baath Party apparatchik.

State television said Omar Ghalawanji, who was a deputy prime minister as well as minister for local administration, would lead a temporary caretaker government.

Assad had appointed Hijab, a former agriculture minister, as prime minister in June following a parliamentary election which came after more than a year of violent protests against Assad's rule.

Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom

www.shafaqna.com

 

 

Related items (by tag)

Army: Kurdish move in disputed Iraqi province ‘dangerous’

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –New deployments of Kurdish forces in the disputed Kirkuk province in...

Read more

Hamas calls on Abbas to complete reconciliation according to agreements

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –Hamas called on Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah...

Read more