Syria: Assad fires deputy PM for 'overstepping duties' after meeting US officials Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has sacked his vice premier, Qadri Jamil, saying the official had been absent without leave and carried out unauthorised meetings abroad, the official SANA news agency said. "Jamil was dismissed because he left his centre of work without prior permission and did not follow up on his duties ... additionally, he undertook activities outside the nation without coordinating with the government," said a statement posted in a news flash on Syria TV. He gave an outspoken interview to the Guardian newspaper last month, saying he believed the civil war ravaging the country has reached a stalemate and would call for a ceasefire if long-stalled peace talks in Geneva were to take place. Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN-Arab League envoy, said today it was up to Syrians to shape their political transition in hoped-for peace talks, after warning of the potential "Somalisation" of the country. He spoke as fighting prevented chemical weapons inspectors from visiting two sites, although UN chief Ban Ki-moon said the mission to destroy Syria's arsenal by mid-2014 was still on track. Mr Brahimi has been seeking to build on the momentum of last month's US-Russian deal to eradicate Syria's chemical weapons in order to launch the so-called Geneva II peace talks proposed for next month. But the talks have been cast into doubt by the increasingly divided opposition's refusal to attend unless the departure of President Bashar al-Assad is on the table, a demand rejected by Damascus.