Assad regime on brink of collapse, says ex-PM

Wednesday 15 August 2012

President Bashar al Assad controls less than one-third of Syria and his power is crumbling, his former prime minister said yesterday, in his first public appearance since he defected to the opposition this month.

Custom byline text:

amman

Riyad Hijab said the morale of Syrian authorities was low after grappling for 17 months to crush a popular uprising and an armed insurgency against Mr Assad.

He told a news conference in Jordan: "The regime is collapsing, spiritually and financially. It no longer controls more than 30% of Syrian territory."

Mr Hijab, a Sunni Muslim, was not in Mr Assad's inner circle. But his flight, after two months in the job, looked embarrassing for the president. Mr Hijab did not explain his estimate of the territory still controlled by Mr Assad, whose military outnumbers and outguns the rebels.Curbs on media access make it hard to determine how much of Syria is in rebel hands.Much of the fighting has been in outlying towns and rural areas. But Mr Assad has lost swathes of territory along the country's northern and eastern borders and fighting has weakened his hold on larger cities such as Homs and Aleppo.While the military focuses on Damascus and the business hub of Aleppo, rebels have made gains in the tribal heartland to the east, where a ferocious fight is under way for Deir al Zor, capital of the main oil-producing region.Army gunners shell Deir al Zor, an impoverished Sunni city near the Iraqi border, from fortified outposts in the desert.A Western diplomat who follows the Syrian military said rebel forces in Deir al Zor were fragmented, but regime forces lacked the numbers and supply lines to defeat them, in a region producing all Syria's 200,000 barrel-a-day oil output.Jubilant rebels said they had shot down a Syrian jet fighter south-east of Deir al Zor and captured its pilot on Monday. The government blamed the crash on technical problems.Mr Assad also faced deeper diplomatic isolation over his violent crackdown on opponents, with the planned suspension of Syria from the Saudi-based Organisation of Islamic Co-operation (OIC), a step opposed by his Shi'ite ally Iran.He will view the OIC decision, to be adopted at a summit of the 57-member body in Mecca, as the work of supporters of the Syrian opposition such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey.Divisions among big powers and regional rivalry between Iran and Saudi Arabia have stymied diplomatic attempts to halt bloodshed in Syria, where opposition sources say at least 18,000 people have been killed. The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 180 died on Monday.The violence, now focused on Aleppo but flaring in many other areas, has displaced 1.5 million people inside Syria and forced many to flee abroad, with 150,000 registered refugees in Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq.UN emergency relief co-ordinator Valerie Amos has arrived in Syria to discuss aid for civilians trapped or uprooted by the fighting, which has frequently prevented the delivery of food and medical supplies.In Aleppo, Syria's biggest city, food is running short and has become far more expensive. State-run groceries that sold heavily subsidised staples have shut. In the Bustan al Qasr district, hundreds of men lined up for bread.At a makeshift hospital, one doctor said people were arriving seeking food rather than medicine. Another doctor described a man who had been shot in the foot while carrying home food for his family. He said: "He was more worried about losing his groceries than about his wound."

Contextual targeting label:

Block list

Commenting & Moderation

We moderate all comments on HeraldScotland on either a pre-moderated or post-moderated basis. If you're a relatively new user then your comments will be reviewed before publication and if we know you well then your comments will be subject to moderation only if other users or the moderators believe you've broken the rules, which are available here.

Moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours. Please be patient if your posts are not approved instantly.

Assad regime on brink of collapse, says ex-PM

Commenting & Moderation

MOST READ

SPONSORED LINKS

MOST COMMENTED