Syria fires ambassador who joined uprising
AP
FILE - In this July 3, 2008 file photo, Nawaf Fares, center, governor of the Quneitra, Syria, briefs a U.N. delegation visiting the city of Quneitra in the Golan Heights to investigate Israeli practices in occupied Arab lands. Fares, who was named Syria's ambassador to Iraq in September, 2008, has defected and will seek asylum in Turkey, a Syrian opposition figure said Wednesday, July 11, 2012. (AP photo/Bassem Tellawi, File)
FILE - In this July 3, 2008 file photo, Nawaf Fares, center, governor of the Quneitra, Syria, briefs a U.N. delegation visiting the city of Quneitra in the Golan Heights to investigate Israeli practices in occupied Arab lands. Fares, who was named Syria's ambassador to Iraq in September, 2008, has defected and will seek asylum in Turkey, a Syrian opposition figure said Wednesday, July 11, 2012. (AP photo/Bassem Tellawi, File)
FILE - In this Sept. 16, 2008 file photo provided by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Nawaf Fares, left, is sworn in as Syria's first ambassador to Iraq in 26 years before Syrian President Bashar Assad, right, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in Damascus. Fares has defected and will seek asylum in Turkey, the most senior diplomat to abandon the regime since the uprising against Assad began 16 months ago, a Syrian opposition figure said Wednesday, July 11, 2012. (AP Photo/SANA, File)
BEIRUT (AP) ? Syria's Foreign Ministry says it has fired the country's ambassador to Iraq after he defected to the opposition.
In a statement reported by Syria's state news agency on Thursday, the ministry said Nawaf Fares had been "relieved of his duties" and should face "legal and disciplinary accountability."
Fares announced his defection in a video released on Wednesday, saying he was siding with "the revolution" against President Bashar Assad.
He is the highest profile diplomat to defect in the uprising and the second prominent figure to leave the regime in a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, an Assad confidant and son of a former defense minister, fled Syria last week, though he has not spoken publically since.
Activist say more than 17,000 people have been killed in the 16-month-old uprising.
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