Nawaf al-Fares
Ambassador of Syria
Nawaf al-Fares (Arabic: نواف فارس الصياح) is the former Syrian ambassador to Iraq who defected from the ruling government led by Bashar al-Assad on 11 July 2012 during the Syrian Civil War.
Career
Fares was a veteran of Assad's rule and held senior positions as a leading member of Syria's diplomatic corps under the late president Hafez al-Assad. He served as high-ranking official of the Syrian Regional Branch of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party in Deir al Zour province. Additionally, Fares held senior security posts in Syria. He is also a former provincial governor. He served as the governor of three significant governorates, Latakia Governorate (until 2000), Idlib Governorate (appointed in 2000) and Quneitra Governorate.
He was the first Syrian ambassador to Baghdad after thirty years. His term as ambassador to Iraq began on 16 September 2008. He resigned both from the Ba'ath Party and as Syria's ambassador to Iraq on 11 July 2012.
Defection
Al Jazeera reported on 11 July 2012 that Fares had defected from the Syrian government.
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This entry incorporates text from “Nawaf al-Fares” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.