A spokesman for Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said on Thursday that an apparent defection by Syria’s deputy oil minister represented an “important moment” in an uprising that has turned increasingly violent in recent weeks.
On Wednesday, a man identifying himself as the deputy oil minister, Abdo Hussameldin, appeared in a video posted to YouTube and said that he had left his post to join the “revolution of this dignified people.” The authenticity of the video, which was filmed at an undisclosed location, could not be verified.
On Wednesday, a man identifying himself as the deputy oil minister, Abdo Hussameldin, appeared in a video posted to YouTube and said that he had left his post to join the “revolution of this dignified people.” The authenticity of the video, which was filmed at an undisclosed location, could not be verified.
If confirmed, the defection of the deputy oil minister would place him among the most senior officials to abandon the government of President Bashar al-Assad since the uprising began nearly a year ago. “It would be the highest-ranking civilian resignation so far,” the spokesman, Steve Field, told reporters in London, Reuters reported.
The video appeared as the United Nations’ top relief official, Valerie Amos, visited the ravaged Syrian city of Homs on Wednesday — the first inspection there by an independent outside observer since pro-Assad forces launched a sustained military assault. Ms. Amos said on Thursday that she was “struck” by the destruction, which she described as “significant” in the heavily bombarded neighborhood of Baba Amr.
“That part of Homs is completely destroyed and I am concerned to learn what happened to the people in that part of the city,” she said on Thursday in Damascus, news reports said.
Her assessment came a day after top officials at the Pentagon said on Wednesday that President Obama had asked for preliminary military options to respond to the increasing violence in Syria. They stressed, however, that the administration still believed that diplomatic and economic pressure was the best way to protect Syrians from the Assad government’s repression.
The appraisal by Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta, in Senate testimony, reflected increased concern about the year-old uprising in Syria, in which more than 7,500 people have been killed, according to United Nations estimates.
Yet despite a brutal military response, top civilian officials of Mr. Assad’s government appear to have closed ranks and thus far largely avoided high profile defections of the sort portrayed in the video announcement on Wednesday.
“I Abdo Hussameldin, deputy oil and mineral wealth minister in Syria, announce my defection from the regime, resignation from my position and withdrawal from the Baath Party. I join the revolution of this dignified people,” the man in the video said. “I say to this regime: you have inflicted on those who you claim are your people a whole year of sorrow and sadness, denying them basic life and humanity and driving Syria to the edge of the abyss.”
Mr. Assad appointed Mr. Hussameldin, 58, to his position through a presidential decree in 2009.
Wearing a suit and tie, the man appeared relaxed as he stared directly into the camera in a tight head and shoulders shot, appearing to read from a prepared statement on his lap as he sat on a dark gray chair against a yellow background.
”I have been in government for 33 years,” he said. “I did not want to end my career serving the crimes of this regime. I have preferred to do what is right although I know that this regime will burn my house and persecute my family.”
Public defections have remained rare among the civilian branches of the state, which Mr. Assad’s opponents attribute to the tight control of the secret police and the fear of retribution against families of defectors.
In late August, the attorney general of Hama Province, Mohammad al-Bakkour, declared in a YouTube video that he had resigned in protest against the suppression of street demonstrations and the storming of the city of Hama by tanks, according to Reuters. Mr. Bakkour has not been heard from since and some opposition sources say the video was made under pressure from rebels.
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