Ghalioun Hails Deputy Minister's Defection, U.S. Calls It 'Good News'
Syrian opposition leader Burhan Ghalioun on Thursday welcomed the defection of the deputy oil minister and told Agence France Presse he expects more government officials and politicians to follow suit.
"I hail the deputy (oil) minister who defected and I call on all government members and public servants ... to abandon this regime and join the ranks of the revolution for freedom and dignity," said Ghalioun, head of the Syrian National Council, the main opposition group.
"I expect for sure that there are other government officials and politicians who will follow suit," he added.
Ghalioun was reacting to the defection hours earlier in a video message posted on YouTube of Syria's deputy oil minister Abdo Hussameddin, the most senior official to join the opposition.
Hussameddin said he no longer wished to serve a "criminal regime" and urged colleagues to abandon "this sinking ship".
"The main reason other officials have not defected so far is that this regime for 50 years has enslaved people and transformed them into robots manipulated by remote control," Ghalioun said.
"They needed a major jolt to awaken them and I think this revolution has done that."
Washington cautiously welcomed the news, with State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland saying "it would be very good news," adding that the United States could not authenticate the YouTube video
"That would be absolutely in keeping with the kind of calls that the secretary and the president have been making for senior members of the regime to break with Assad," she said.
Source: Agence France Presse
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