CAIRO/BEIRUT (Reuters) – A Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad’s government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has fled the country, a diplomat in the region said on Monday.

Jihad al-Makdissi, who is in his 40s, previously worked at the Syrian embassy in London and returned to Damascus a year ago to serve as spokesman for the ministry, defending the government’s crackdown on the revolt against Assad’s rule.

CAIRO/BEIRUT, Dec 3 (Reuters) – A Syrian foreign ministry
spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad’s
government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has fled the
country, a diplomat in the region said on Monday.

Jihad al-Makdissi, who is in his 40s, previously worked at
the Syrian embassy in London and returned to Damascus a year ago
to serve as spokesman for the ministry, defending the
government’s crackdown on the revolt against Assad’s rule.

CAIRO/BEIRUT, Dec 3 (Reuters) – A Syrian foreign ministry
spokesman, who was the most public face of Bashar al-Assad’s
government as it battled a 20-month-old uprising, has defected
and fled the country, a diplomat in the region said on Monday.

Jihad al-Makdissi, who is in his 40s, previously worked at
the Syrian embassy in London and returned to Damascus a year ago
to serve as spokesman for the ministry, defending the
government’s crackdown on the revolt against Assad’s rule.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Syria’s new opposition coalition edged closer on Friday toward choosing a prime minister to lead a transitional government after three days of talks in Cairo that furthered the dominance of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Former Prime Minister Riad Hijab, a longtime apparatchik in President Bashar al-Assad’s Baath Party before he defected in August, is the strongest candidate for the job, delegates said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Syria’s new opposition coalition created a new executive body at a meeting in Cairo on Friday, less than a month after the group dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies came into being with Western and Arab support.

Voting was underway to elect the 11 members of the new “political assembly” at the conclusion of the 60-member coalition’s first full meeting, delegates said.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Syrian opposition leaders overcame a row over membership of their new coalition on Thursday, but obstacles remain to forming a transitional government that could encourage greater Western backing for the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

Aware they could quickly lose credibility with rebels and opposition activists inside Syria, some 60 delegates meeting in Egypt began discussing an internal constitution as a first step toward forming a government according to a Western and Gulf backed plan, delegates said on Thursday.

CAIRO, Nov 28 (Reuters) – Syria’s new opposition coalition
held its first full meeting on Wednesday to discuss forming a
transitional government but disagreements broke out at the
outset, showing that President Bashar al-Assad’s foes remain
deeply divided.

A transitional government is crucial to win effective Arab
and Western support for the 20-month revolt against Assad, and
would bolster the opposition as a democratic alternative to
decades of autocratic rule in Syria.

CAIRO (Reuters) – Syria’s new opposition coalition will hold its first full meeting on Wednesday to discuss forming a transitional government crucial to win effective Arab and Western support for the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.

The 60 or so delegates, chosen after marathon talks in Qatar this month, are meeting in Cairo ahead of a gathering of the Friends of Syria, a grouping of dozens of countries that had pledged mostly non-military backing for the revolt but which are worried by the rising influence of Islamists in the opposition.

AMMAN (Reuters) – Syrian rebels said on Sunday they had captured a helicopter base east of Damascus after an overnight assault, their latest gain in a costly battle to unseat President Bashar al-Assad that is drawing nearer to his seat of power.

The Marj al-Sultan base, 15 km (10 miles) from the capital, is the second military facility on the outskirts of the city reported to have fallen to Assad’s opponents this month.

AMMAN, Nov 22 (Reuters) – Syrian rebels captured an army
base in the eastern oil province of Deir al-Zor on Thursday,
striking another blow against President Bashar al-Assad’s
military and further weakening his control in the strategic
region bordering Iraq.

The capture of the artillery base on the outskirts of
Mayadeen, a town on the Euphrates river near some of Syria’s
main oilfields, follows rebel takeovers of military
installations in the north and centre of the country this week.