BEIRUT, (Reuters) – Syria denied reports today that President Bashar al-Assad’s deputy had defected and his forces pressed an offensive against rebels, bombarding parts of Aleppo in the north and hitting an insurgent-held town in the oil-producing east.
Vice-President Farouq al-Shara “never thought for a moment about leaving the country”, said a statement from his office broadcast on state television issued in response to reports that the veteran Baath Party loyalist had tried to defect to Jordan.
Assad, battling a 17-month-old rebellion led by Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority that has turned into a civil war, has suffered a string of defections including his prime minister Riyadh Hijab two weeks ago.
Shara, whose cousin – an intelligence officer – announced his own defection on Thursday, is a Sunni Muslim from Deraa province where the revolt first erupted against Assad, from the minority Alawite sect which is an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam.
The 73-year-old former foreign minister kept a low profile as the rebellion escalated but appeared in public last month at a state funeral for three of Assad’s top security officials killed in a bomb attack in Damascus.
The statement said he had worked since the start of the uprising to find a political solution to end the bloodshed and welcomed the appointment of veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi as a new international mediator for Syria.
Brahimi, who hesitated for days to accept a job that France’s U.N. envoy Gerard Araud called an “impossible mission,” will replace former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is stepping down at the end of the month.
