Surprise, Surprise! France 'helped Syrian defector escape'

General Manaf Tlass has hinted that French secret agents helped him flee Syria in early July.

Al-Jazeera

"Syria's most prominent defector, General Manaf Tlass, has hinted that French secret agents helped him escape from Syria, where he had long been a member of President Bashar al-Assad's inner circle.

"The French [intelligence] services helped me get out of Syria and I thank them for that," Tlass, whose July 6 defection was hailed in the West as a major setback for Assad, said in a recorded interview broadcast on France's BFM television news channel on Monday.....

Tlass is considered a potential candidate [A Syrian Karzai] to pave the way for a peaceful transition both inside and outside Syria, but many opposition activists say he is tainted by his long service to Assad and the president's late father.

He has faced criticism from Syrian rebels, who say 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....."