Jihad MakdissiCAIRO – Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi has defected from President Bashar Al-Assad's government and has left the country, a regional diplomatic source said Monday. “He defected. All I can say is that he is out of Syria," the source, who did not want to be named, said. Makdissi has resigned and is headed for London, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday. “Makdissi 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 said, adding that he had left from Beirut international airport. Makdissi, who belongs to Syria's Christian minority, staunchly defended Assad's crackdown on the 20-month revolt against five decades of autocratic rule by Assad and his late father. A former diplomat, Makdissi is fluent in English, a rarity in the state apparatus shaped by xenophobic Baath Party ideology. Lebanon's Al-Manar Television said earlier that Makdissi had been sacked for making statements which did not reflect official positions. – Agencies
