Turn your weapons on Assad urges defector

Branding President Bashar al-Assad "a dictator who kills his people", Syria's ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf al-Fares, spoke on television yesterday after confirming he was resigning.

"I'm announcing from this moment on that I'm siding with the people's revolution in Syria," he said. "I ask members of the military to join the revolution and to defend the country and the citizens. Turn your guns towards the criminals from this regime.

"Every Syrian man has to join the revolution to remove this nightmare and this gang which has wreaked corruption across Syria and destroyed the state and society over the last 40 years and to guarantee a bright future for the coming generations."

The defection indicates growing disenchantment at senior levels of the regime as it continues to try to crush the 16-month uprising.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said senior defections were "an indication of the

fact that support for Assad is crumbling".

"There have been a number of high-level defections in recent days and weeks, and they are simply the tip of the iceberg," he said.

In Libya, a series of top-level diplomatic defections revealed widespread dissension within the Gaddafi regime in the months before it fell.

Last week, one of the most senior military commanders, Brigadier General Manaf Tlas, fled to Paris.

Fifteen generals have fled from the regime, along with thousands of lower-level soldiers.

Mr Fares and General Tlas were confidants of Assad. However both are Sunni Muslims and not part of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

The Assad family and most of his inner circle are Alawites.

The Alawite group around Assad is expected to stay loyal to the end.

Most of the estimated 17,000 people killed have been Sunnis and the Alawite minority fear retribution should the regime fall.

The massacres that have occurred recently - including the killing of 49 children in Houla - have been carried out by Alawite militia against Sunnis, acting in concert with the army.

The defection of Mr Fares came as division continued at the UN Security Council about the next step to try to end the conflict.

Despite a visit to Moscow this week by members of the Syrian opposition, Russia remained opposed to any binding resolution forcing Assad to step down.

Syria is Russia's key strategic ally in the Middle East. It hosts a Russian naval base and is a major buyer of its weapons.

Since the uprising began, Russia's arms sales to Syria have increased dramatically.

The US, Britain, France and Germany are trying to get the Security Council to agree to a resolution that would give Assad 10 days to introduce a ceasefire or face tough new sanctions. Russia, however, made clear it would not support any resolution which included tougher sanctions.

Instead, it wanted a resolution that would give Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy, another 90 days to try to broker a ceasefire.

Additional reporting: agencies