Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, has become the first senior Syrian diplomat to defect to the opposition.

Fares defected on 11 July and has called for other senior members of government and the military to follow his example.

“I call on all party members to do the same because the regime has transformed it into a tool to oppress the people and their aspirations to freedom and dignity,” said Fares in a video clip, which was broadcast on the Qatar satellite news channel Al-Jazeera.

The defection comes shortly after a Syrian general from Al-Assad’s inner circle deserted the ruling regime. On 5 July, General Manaf Tlass announced he was defecting from the ruling regime and was flying to Paris.

Tlass was a member of the ruling Baáth Party’s central committee and was in charge of the 105th Brigade in the regime’s Republican Guard, which was led by President Bashar al-Assad before he assumed presidency.

More than 10,000 civilians are reported to have been killed in Syria since the political unrest began in March last year.

The US-based Human Rights Watch has accused the Syrian president’s regime of practicing widespread torture of political opponents. In a report released on 3 July, the human rights organisation said that it had interviewed more than 200 former detainees who have suffered severe torture at 27 detention facilities run by Syrian intelligence agencies.