Riad Hijab -- who planned the break for months, according toan aide -- is the highest-level political figure to switch sides and is certainto encourage rebels after a string of military and diplomatic figures abandonedthe regime. A Jordanian official and a rebel spokesman said he fled to Jordan.
Ahmad Kassim, a senior official with the Free Syrian Army,initially said Hijab defected along with three other ministers but later saidonly two other ministers had left. There has been no confirmation, however,from Syria or any other source on other ministers defecting.
A senior US official said the defection is more evidencethat the Assad regime "is crumbling." The official, travelling withUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Johannesburg, urged other seniormembers of the government and military to break with Assad.
The Syrian regime has suffered a series of significantsetbacks over the past month that point to a loosening of its grip on thecountry.
Four of the president's top security aides were killed in arebel bombing of state security headquarters in the capital Damascus on July18, including the defence minister and Assad's brother in law. There has been asteady stream of high-level defections from diplomats to generals. And theregime has been unable to fully subdue rebel challenges in the two majorcities, Damascus and Aleppo.
