As Jordan granted asylum to a Syrian fighter pilot who landed a warplane near Amman, top Assad regime advisers have secret plans to defect, UPI quoted U.S. officials as saying. Senior military figures who are part of President Bashar Assad's inner circle are among those understood to be preparing "exit strategies" if the Syrian regime becomes critically threatened by the opposition fighters, the U.S. officials told the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph. The close Assad advisers are establishing lines of communication with opposition leaders to discuss how they would be received if they deserted, the officials said. The aides are also contacting Western governments, they said. "We are seeing members of Bashar Assad's inner circle make plans to leave," a senior U.S. official in Washington told the newspaper. The secret preparations include moving large sums of money offshore into Lebanese and Chinese banks, the Telegraph said. Syrian opposition groups confirmed they were actively courting U.S. help to encourage more defections. "I know for sure there are some high-ranking officers who are waiting for the right chance to defect," a senior opposition source told the newspaper. "We have names of people in the presidential palace. There are rumors that there is one who is really close to the president and we are expecting to see him out of the country soon," the source said. Neither the White House nor the State Department had an immediate comment.
