Syrian general who defected speaks out for first time, calls for unity to oust Assad

A former top Syrian military commander and close friend of President Bashar Assad confirmed his defection Tuesday and called on the country to unite against the ruling regime.

Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlas, son of a former defense minister, said in a video broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV that Syrians must work together to build a new country.

“I speak to you not as an official, but as a son of Syria, as a son of the Syrian Arab army that has rejected the criminal program of this corrupt regime,” Tlas said, dressed in a light blue shirt with an open collar, his gray hair tussled.

“Our duty today as Syrians is to unify for one goal, and that is to make our country free and democratic,” he said.

It was his first public appearance since he left Syria earlier this month. French officials later confirmed that he was in France.

The video was believed to have been filmed in Paris, according to Al-Arabiya.

His long silence raised questions about whether he had joined the anti-Assad uprising or merely fled the civil war.

Tlas said the “new Syria … should not be built on revenge, exclusion or monopoly.”

He said the troops who had not defected should not be blamed.

“Whatever mistakes made by some members of the Syrian Arab Army … those honorable troops who have not partaken in the killing … are the extension of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army.”

Tlas is the highest-level defector from the Syrian regime since the conflict’s start.

He was a member of the elite Republican Guard and son of former Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, who served under Assad’s father.

He has reportedly been in talks with rebel groups about a role in post-Assad Syria.