Reuters, Cairo, 3 Dec 2012 – Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi has defected from President Bashar al-Assad’s government and has left the country, a regional diplomatic source said on Monday.
‘He defected. All I can say is that he is out of Syria,’ the source, who did not want to be named, told Reuters.
Makdissi , who belongs to Syria’s Christian minority, staunchly defended Assad’s crackdown on the 20-month revolt against five decades of autocratic rule by Assad and his late father.
A former diplomat, Makdissi is fluent in English, a rarity in the state apparatus shaped by xenophobic Baath Party ideology. But he had little influence in a system underpinned by the security apparatus in which the foreign ministry has no say.
Lebanon’s al-Manar Television said earlier that Makdissi had been sacked for making statements which did not reflect official positions.