Syria Defections Raise Hopes Among Assad Opponents A string of high-profile defections from the Syrian regime has stirred hopes in the West that President Bashar Assad's inner circle will start abandoning him in greater numbers, hastening his downfall. But the tightly protected regime has largely held together over the course of the 16-month-old uprising, driven by a mixture of fear and loyalty. The latest official to flee, the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, Nawaf Fares, announced that he was joining the revolution, asserting Thursday that only force will drive Assad from power. He is the most senior diplomat to abandon Assad. "There is no road map ever with Bashar Assad, because any plan, any statement that is agreed on internationally he delays on and ignores," Fares told the Al-Jazeera satellite channel. There is no way that he can be pushed from power without force, and the Syrian people realize this. Syria's Foreign Ministry denounced Fares, saying he should face "legal and disciplinary accountability." In Washington, State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell hailed what he called the "first major diplomatic defection," adding: "We think this a wider sign that the regime is feeling the pressure. The pressure is up and the regime is really starting to fall apart. Fares is the second prominent Syrian to break with the regime in less than a week. Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, an Assad confidant and son of a former defense minister, defected last week, but has not spoken publicly. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Tlass has been in contact with the Syrian opposition. He would not comment on reports that Tlass was in Paris. I know that there is some closeness between the opposition and the general... Contact has been made," Fabius told journalists in Paris. Assad's regime has suffered a steady stream of low-level army defectors, who have joined a group of dissidents known as the Free Syrian Army, now numbering in the tens of thousands. There have been several high-level defections in the past - including a Syrian fighter pilot who flew his plane to neighboring Jordan during a training mission in June in a brazen move. Although the defections are notable, Assad's regime has remained remarkably airtight, particularly compared with the hemorrhaging of Moammar Gadhafi's inner circle in Libya in 2011. Within weeks of the Libyan revolt, a number of Libyan ambassadors and other high-ranking officials quit the government, and many joined the opposition leadership. The early defection of huge sections of the army in eastern Libya gave the rebel movement a safe zone where they could freely organize their political and military strategies. Syria has seen nothing similar. Part of the reason is the loyalty of the armed forces. Unlike the armies of Tunisia and Egypt, Syria's military has stood fiercely by the country's leader as Assad faces down an extraordinary protest movement. Assad, and his father who ruled before him, stacked key military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect over the past 40 years, ensuring the loyalty of the armed forces by melding the fate of the army and the regime. The army has a clear interest in protecting the regime because they fear revenge attacks and persecution should the country's Sunni majority gain the upper hand.