Syria's internally displaced languish in squalor at Turkish borderġ400 years ago a certain prophet said that after Syrian civil war, will come the liberation of Jerusalem and the coming of Jesus Christ the true Messiah. I am certain of that."ĬNN is not identifying where Tlass lives because of security concerns. "Everything will be different once he realizes that the international community has truly decided it's time to step down," Tlass said. Indeed, it is lack of "political will," as he put it, that is keeping his former friend in power. That is not to say that Tlass believes the world should let Syria fester. We want the Syrian people to liberate themselves by themselves." "But we don't want to repeat the Iraqi experience or the Afghani experience or the Libyan experience. "It will not be a danger," Tlass said almost inaudibly.
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Western powers have often cited the strength of the Syrian military as a reason for their reluctance to intervene, a point that Tlass - a former member of the military - said was simply not true. "I don't believe there should be any foreign intervention in Syria," the former general said. "But when there is a project for Syria that can, which can include all parties, the Alawites will defect."Īs the world continues to hem and haw on what to do about the civil war in Syria, Tlass was unequivocal about what he thought should be done - or not be done. "Alawites are being told that the Islamists are taking over - they were considered infidels by the Islamists and that's what scares them," Tlass said. Rather, it is fear and the sense that the Sunni-majority rebels do not have a clear vision. Nonetheless, Tlass said it is not allegiance to Assad that is preventing more Alawites from defecting. Tlass, unlike much of the military and regime leadership, is Sunni - Assad and most of his allies are Alawite, a small Shia sect. "My military conscience could not take that constant killing of innocent civilians." "But then I realized that the violence was becoming unbearable and I could no longer take it," Tlass said. Tlass stayed silent and survived like this through many months, and many more killed. "I stayed in my office and refused to engage in any meeting or any conversation with any of them," Tlass said. His fellow insiders told him that if he kept quiet and avoided Assad, he would be safe. Tlass was a dissident within the regime, but he was still a true member of the inner circle. It would take him more than another year to defect. The last time the two spoke, Tlass says, was June 2011. "The old guard around him lulled him into handling the crisis this way."īut the falling out with Assad came early - four months after the conflict began. You should be part of it and democratize the country. "That there is a true uprising and that he must go along with it. "I tried to tell him that he had to give up something for the people," Tlass said of his last conversations with Assad. "Ever since then I can no longer be a friend of Bashar's," Tlass said. When Assad refused to react, Tlass knew that was it. Tlass said he went to Assad and told him that the perpetrator should be punished. "I started to feel the feelings of a citizen." "I remember that video that I saw when they stepped on the head of a Syrian citizen in Baniyas," a city on Syria's Western coast.
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"I remember very well how I defected," Tlass told CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Thursday. And, of course, he was a close friend of Assad's.īut Tlass became disgusted with the regime's brutal crackdown - and he learned about it in the exact same way the rest of the world has: by watching amateur video posted to YouTube. Manaf Tlass was a brigadier general in Syria's Republican Guard. The crisis has changed him."īefore he defected this July, Tlass was the very image of an Assad regime insider. He loves people," Tlass said when describing the Syrian leader. (CNN) - Manaf Tlass was once one of Bashar al-Assad's closest friends.