Report: Syrian VP defected to Jordan

Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa has defected from Bashar Assad’s regime and has been in Jordan for days, sources told the Al-Arabiya news network Saturday.

A number of reports published last weekend said al-Sharaa, who also served as vice president under Hafez Assad, Bashar's father, may have defected to the Hashemite Kingdom. But official sources in Syria denied the reports and claimed that al-Sharaa was working as usual in his Damascus office. The opposition to Assad's regime also said the attempted defection may have failed.

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Following the reports, Lebanese newspaper al-Mustaqbal said Assad had fired al-Sharaa and named Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar as his replacement. Syria's state-owned television network denied the report of al-Sharaa's dismissal.

Also on Saturday, Syrian opposition sources told Al-Arabiya that senior General Mohammad Musa al-Jairo has defected from the ranks of the army and has relocated with his family to Jordan. Al-Jairo is the commander of the Syrian army's 7th Division. He is the second top Syrian general to defect to Jordan.

Earlier, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai quoted senior Arab diplomats as saying that the governments of Iran, Russia, China and other Syrian allies have concluded that there is no solution to the Syrian crisis that will see Assad remain in power.

The Arab diplomats said the countries are now trying to advance a proposal by which the president will leave Syria and receive asylum elsewhere. Damascus has denied the report.

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