Jihad al-Maqdessi 'Defects' from Regime, Leaves Syria
إقرأ هذا الخبر بالعربية
Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad al-Maqdessi has defected from President Bashar Assad's regime, a Syrian opposition leader announced on Monday.
“Maqdessi left Damascus for Beirut and from there he headed to an unknown destination,” Jamal al-Wadi, the director of the office of revolutionary movement of the Syrian National Council, told Sky News Arabia television.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Maqdessi has “resigned” and is headed for London.
"Maqdessi was pressured by people inside the presidential palace, but not the president himself, to resign. He is now on his way to London," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told Agence France Presse, adding that he had left with his family from the Beirut Rafik Hariri International Airport.
"The entourage of the president was disturbed by frequent media appearances by Maqdessi and some of the statements he made," Abdel Rahman said of the diplomat, who maintains an official Twitter account.
A native Arabic speaker and fluent in French and English, Maqdessi conducted his thesis in London while working for the Syrian embassy.
The Christian native of Damascus was called back to the Syrian capital soon after an uprising against Assad broke out in March last year to assume the post of foreign ministry spokesman.
He later relocated his wife and two children to Beirut, where he would visit them on the weekends.
Maqdessi had come under criticism of late by the ministry, the cabinet and by state media officials at the presidential palace, according to friends. However, he maintained his loyalty to Assad.
Earlier on Monday, the Lebanese pro-Damascus television al-Manar said “Maqdessi has been relieved of his duties for voicing stances that do not conform to Syria's official rhetoric."
Al-Mayadeen, another Beirut-based pro-Syria television, also reported that Maqdessi had defected.
Meanwhile, Lebanon's al-Jadeed television said "Maqdessi left for London via the Beirut airport after tensions in his relation with the Syrian regime."
Later on Monday, the rebel military council of Damascus and its countryside said regime forces torched Maqdessi's house in al-Mazzeh neighborhood in the Syrian capital.
03 December 2012, 20:30
16
One day soon we'am wahab will defect, and he will pay tribute to the rebels, again there's an earthquake coming, hizbustan will lose many fake allies and will be left alone to face unprecedented isolation in the suni arab world.
03 December 2012, 20:39
82
Let Israel shake its fist at Lebanon, and everybody but Hezbullah runs for the toilet, but the old ones are too slow. Slavery is most powerful in the mind of the slave: playright Anton Fugard said in South Africa that "the secret police are in your head." Look around you, Lebanon: Napoleonic France is finished! You are free! Time to start acting free.
Joke: the American and English generals prepare for the battle. The English general says, "Bring me my red coat, so if I am wounded, the troops will not see the blood and lose heart." The American general says, "Bring me my brown pants..."
03 December 2012, 22:42
25
It seems that the end is becoming very near.
I know many said this a lot in the past 2 years, but I think it's safe to say it now. No matter what Russia, the US or the Arabs say, the truth on the ground is that if the battle in Damascus lasts for another week, Aleppo will fall and the regime will be confined to a couple of pockets on the whole territory, namely the heart of Damascus and the Lattakia region.
And then... the massacre will start... sadely but inevitably.
03 December 2012, 23:29
35
Ha ha ha ......I am laughing out loud!!! Where are Flame_ Retardant and his friend Poor_Instinct to comment??? How much does anyone want to bet that Nassy, ASSad ans Aoun conveniently will forget to mention this defection too??
03 December 2012, 23:44
00
at least he left walking....not running in his pyjamas.i respect him becose he sent his wife and kids to beirut b4 him,not leaving them and he is not a military general, bravo jihad.
03 December 2012, 23:34
36
Asaad Mustafa, a former agriculture minister, told Al Arabiya that Makdissi was expected to defect because “the scale of falsified information he was asked to report was unbearable.”
03 December 2012, 23:43
12
Règlements de comptes internes... Rien de bien intéressant mais qui relève plutôt de l'anecdote.
04 December 2012, 00:36
44
But I thought nasrocrap's friends said that nothing was going on in Syria!!!! And Auon said months ago that the "issues" in Syria will be over in "a week"...
04 December 2012, 02:04
00
FlamingTurd's a genius, between mid March 2011 and late November when the magnificent GMA made his idiotic remark during his idiotic weekly Tuesday press conference that the Syrian revolt being over by next Tuesday, the fearless pres. Bashar was murdering the defenseless Syria people, because they opposed his regime, like his dad used to the Lebanese :), but he needed more time to murder them all (: as we know the Syrian army is incompetent (: and they can only defeat an enemy when the opposing cowardly general runs away to a French embassy with the loot (: but then (: that week and more precisely between the first Tuesday and the next one when the revolt was supposed to be over the situation heavily degenerated thanks to saudi, qatari money, libyan, french and american intervention to counter the russian long time support to syria (: what a coincidence! (: it`s like when GMA said on afternoon he will die fighting but then early the very next morning the magnificent coward fled.
04 December 2012, 02:11
14
Sho khass la7oud? I like how you stay on topic, now who is being irrelevant, btw nasrocrap said nothing is going on as late as last spring ya zakzak...yalla roo7 nem...bas lek, so much for this being a wahhabi/salafi revolution as you like to say, this dude is christian...
04 December 2012, 08:26
12
what an idiotic answer.. ma according to you it was an american/Zionist/gulf conspiracy from the beginning .. so how did you not envision them interfering? hahaha what a loser.
05 December 2012, 06:35
00
Aoun can be outrageous sometimes. I think he needs to focus his effort on internal issues concerning only lebanon, and stop discussing the Syrian crisis.
Hariri, on the other hand, still seems a bit confused about the whole geopolitical situation currently. He does eat a lot of bacon though.
04 December 2012, 01:20
17
"2 years ago, nothing was going on in syria" LOL you ve watched otv too much hahaha... funny!
04 December 2012, 01:51
16
@karim_m1
You are so stubbornly stupid that your imagination creates for you inexistent facts to suit your wishes. You need to take a rest!
Think about Deir Essalib which is the place where your master loved to stay.
04 December 2012, 04:48
23
Earlier on Monday, the Lebanese pro-Damascus television al-Manar said “Maqdessi has been relieved of his duties for voicing stances that do not conform to Syria's official rhetoric."
Ha ha Manar is a know liar. Everyone knows that he would be dead if he was sacked. Bashar is a killer.
04 December 2012, 05:16
13
He's got a silly name. First time I hear a Christian named Jihad.
04 December 2012, 11:26
01
i guess M8 will call him a dangerous saudi wahhabi terrorist now....
