Defected Syrian general : has plan to end crisis

Defected Syrian general Manaf Tlass said in comments published Thursday he is working on a plan to end the conflict, save Syria from sectarianism and rebuild the country without Bashar al-Assad playing a role. In an interview with Asharq al-Awsat newspaper, Tlass said that the roadmap he is working on would involve "honourable" Syrians, including members of the present regime whose hands are "not stained with blood." "I'm trying as much as I can to unite honourable Syrians inside and outside the country to create a roadmap that could end Syria's crisis," Tlass told the paper during a visit to Saudi Arabia. "I will contact all honourable people willing to build Syria, whether they were from the (opposition) Syrian National Council, the (rebel) Free Syrian Army, and honourable people even if they were from within the regime," he said. Tlass, whose defection this month was hailed in the West as a key setback for Assad, stressed that regime members whose "hands are not stained with blood must not be uprooted." "We must preserve the state," he said, but added: "I do not see Syria with Bashar al-Assad" playing a role. The general who once shared a close friendship with Assad said the president would have remained in power if "he had not taken this security path ... but security forces disrupted his views." Tlass said he came to Saudi Arabia to get the kingdom's help for his roadmap as well as to perform umra, the so-called lesser pilgrimage that is carried out throughout the year unlike the annual hajj which is held at a specified time each year. "I came to Saudi Arabia... to see the chances of them helping us create this roadmap alongside other friends in the region and the international community," Tlass said. "What's important now is that we redraw a new Syria and find a solution to protect the country from division and sectarian conflict," he said, adding that it would be "difficult" for a military coup to take place in his country. Tlass said he had no intention of leading Syria during a period of transition which according to him must be done by a team comprising Syrians from inside and outside the country. "I do not seek power... I left because I refused taking part in the security solution" he said, referring to Assad's decision to send in his troops against unarmed civilians staging protests calling for his ouster. A general in the elite Republican Guard charged with protecting the regime, Tlass is the son of former defence minister Mustafa Tlass, a close friend of Assad's late father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad. His defection was welcomed by the opposition umbrella group the Syrian National Council as an "enormous blow" to Assad. However Tlass has faced criticism from Syrian rebels, who say that he and his 80-year-old father, who lives in Paris, should have made their positions clear at the very start of the anti-Assad uprising in March last year. Britain-based the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says that more than 19,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in violence unleashed by Assad's forces in its attempt to crush the uprising.