Syrian Envoy to Cyprus defects
The Syrian Ambassador to Cyprus, Lamia al-Hariri, has defected and left for Qatar, Interfax reports.
Al-Jazeera television said in a brief report that Hariri, the charge d'affaires, had "announced her defection in Cyprus," while Al-Arabiya said she had arrived in the Gulf state of Qatar.
The reports could not be immediately verified.
Al-Hariri becomes the second Syrian diplomat to leave her post, after Nawaf Fares, the ambassador to Iraq, defected earlier in July after publicly renouncing his post as ambassador in Iraq and joining the rebellion. He was also reported to be in Qatar.
In the meantime, defected Syrian brigadier general Manaf Tlas called on Tuesday for the Syrian military to denounce what he described as crimes committed by President Bashar al-Assad's forces.
In a televised statement on al-Arabiya television, he called on Syrians to unite and create a joint Syria.
Tlas, whose father Mustafa Tlas was Syria's defense minister for 32 years and confidante of Assad's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, did not call outright for soldiers to defect, unlike scores of senior Sunni officers who have abandoned the army since the 16 month uprising.
He said preserving national unity was a priority in a post-Assad era.
