A Syria opposition official insisted Satruday that reports Vice President Farouq al-Sharie has defected are genuine, and said he was being held under house arrest by the Syrian regime.
A Syrian National Council (SNC) official told Al Arabiya that a Syrian TV statement that “Sharie never thought of leaving the country” was incorrect.
SNC legal office head Marwan Hji al-Rifai told Al Arabiya that Sharie was under house arrest and like other “noble” people he had attempted defect to save his family.
On Friday, spokesman for the Higher Revolutionary Council of the Free Syrian Army, Luay al-Miqdad, claimed Sharie had defected to Jordan.
Miqdad told Al Arabiya that two other high-ranking officers had also defected, but did not give any names.
If Shari has left the Syrian government, it would be a large blow to President Bashar al-Assad's fight to control the country. He is the most powerful Sunni figure in the minority Alawite-led regime, and has served in top posts for almost 30 years.
Sources from the Syrian opposition said that Sharie has been missing for the past two days and that he did not announce his “explicit” defection untill after he arrived in Jordan.
According to Miqdad, the regime of President Bashar al-Assad has been working on a scenario to make the FSA seem as the culprit behind Sharie’s “killing.”
Sharie, 74, has been Syria’s vice president since 2006.
Born in the southern city of Deraa, Sharie first worked in the aviation sector in the early 1960s before entering politics.
He has Bachelors in English, and in 1972 he left to study international law in London and was appointed in 1976 as Syria’s ambassador to Rome. In 1984, he served as the country’s foreign minister.
The vice president's cousin, Ya’rub al-Sharie, appeared in a video on Thursday announcing his official defection and joining the ranks of the Syrian revolution.
AL ARABIYA
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