Sharaa shows up after defection rumors

Syrian Vice President Farouq Sharaa made his first public appearance in over a month Sunday, following rumors that he had tried to defect and was under house arrest. Sharaa, who met the head of the Iranian parliament’s foreign policy committee, Aladin Borujerdi, was last seen in public at a state funeral for top security officials who were killed in a Damascus bomb blast on July 18. Speculation has swirled since last week over the fate of Sharaa, the most powerful Sunni Muslim figure in President Bashar Assad’s minority Alawite-led regime, since the opposition claimed he had tried to defect. Assad’s regime has been rattled by several high-profile defections as the Syrian conflict has escalated, including former Prime Minister Riad Hijab and prominent Gen. Manaf Tlass, one of Assad’s childhood friends. The July 18 bomb attack claimed by the Free Syrian Army also dealt him a major blow, killing four top security officials including Defense Minister Daoud Rajha and his Deputy Assef Shawkat, Assad’s brother-in-law. After the opposition claims that the 73-year-old Sharaa had defected, state television on Aug. 19 quoted a statement from his office saying: “Mr. Sharaa has never thought about leaving the country or going anywhere.” A former deputy oil minister who defected in March this year also said earlier this month that it was “well-known” that Sharaa had tried to leave the country and was under house arrest. Pictures taken by an AFP photographer show Sharaa, dressed in a dark blue business suit and wearing glasses, holding talks with Borujerdi at his office in Damascus. Borujerdi, whose government is Damasus’ staunchest ally, was quoted by the state news agency IRNA as saying Sunday: “We see Syria’s security as our security. On this basis, we will stick by our Syrian brothers.” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem also said the government would only look at negotiating withthe opposition after “purging Syria of armed groups,” IRNA reported. Borujerdi also met Assad, Syria’s state news agency SANA said. SANA had said Saturday that a fake email had been sent out in its name claiming that Sharaa had been sacked, adding that the “information is completely wrong.” It was also forced to deny that Moallem had announced on Twitter he had replaced Sharaa. It said the information was “wrong” and the foreign minister did not have a Twitter account. Sharaa, along with several other top regime figures, was slapped with sanctions by the United States and the European Union in May last year just two months after the start of the uprising against Assad’s autocratic rule. Sharaa, 73, has served in senior posts for almost 30 years under both Assad and his father and predecessor Hafez Assad, becoming vice president in 2006 after serving as foreign minister since 1984. Hijab, the highest profile government figure to defect, said on Aug. 15 after fleeing to Jordan that regime only controlled 30 percent of Syria’s territory and had “collapsed militarily, economically and morally.” From dailystar