The most senior Syrian diplomat to defect and publicly embrace his country's uprising is calling for a foreign military intervention to topple President Bashar al-Assad. He also accused the Damascus regime of collaborating with al Qaeda militants against opponents both in Syria and in neighboring Iraq. "I support military intervention because I know the nature of this regime," Nawaf al-Fares told CNN. "This regime will only go by force." Until a few days ago, Fares was Syria's top man in Baghdad. His defection marks a shocking about-face for an official who occupied a critically important post. Until Fares was sent to Iraq in 2008, Syria had no ambassador stationed in Baghdad for more than 20 years.
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A U.S. official says defector's claims about al Qaeda cooperation are "consistent"
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Nawaf al-Fares, former Syrian ambassador to Iraq, is the highest-ranking diplomatic defector
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"I tried to convince the regime ... to change its treatment of the people," he says
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Syria denies accusations of massacres and attacking civilians
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"I was at the top of the @placeholder regime," Fares said in his first interview with a U.S.-based TV network since his defection.
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"I was at the top of the Syrian regime," Fares said in his first interview with a @placeholder-based TV network since his defection.
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"But what happened in the last year during the holy revolution, all of the killing, the massacres, the refugees, and the declaration of war by @placeholder against the Syrian people, stopped any kind of hope for reform or real change, which had been promised previously by Bashar al-Assad.
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But they appeared reluctant to invite one of @placeholder's trusted lieutenants into the ranks of the opposition movement.
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He abandoned the Syrian government and fled into exile just days before @placeholder' departure.
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"The @placeholder regime felt threatened and felt that it, too, might fall," Fares recalled.
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The militants started coming from all over the world through Syria, under the eyes of the Syrian secret police, which are directly responsible for the killing of thousands of Iraqis in Iraq as well as @placeholder and coalition forces.
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"Bashar al-Assad and his security forces are directly responsible for the killing of thousands and thousands of Iraqis and coalition forces, because he gave @placeholder everything it needed.
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"Since 2003, al-Assad allowed @placeholder and associates to facilitate weapons, money and fighters to al Qaeda's Iraq-based affiliate, setting the conditions for those same elements to shift from Syria-based facilitation to active attacks -- this time focused against the al-Assad regime," the official said.
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"Since 2003, al-Assad allowed al Qaeda and associates to facilitate weapons, money and fighters to al Qaeda's Iraq-based affiliate, setting the conditions for those same elements to shift from @placeholder-based facilitation to active attacks -- this time focused against the al-Assad regime," the official said.
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"This emerging al Qaeda operational presence in country bolsters our own argument that the sooner @placeholder leaves, the better," said the official, noting that that the current al Qaeda-linked effort in Syria is small and not representative of either the opposition or the broader population.
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Fares went on to repeat a long-stated Syrian opposition accusation: that the Syrian government is staging al Qaeda-style attacks in @placeholder as a fear-mongering tactic.