Syrian President Assad dismisses Prime Minister Riad Farid Hijab

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has dismissed the country’s Prime Minister Riad Farid Hijab from his position, according to the Syrian TV.

The Syrian president has ordered Deputy Premier Omar Ghalawanji to handle the government temporarily.

President Assad had appointed former Agriculture Minister Hijab as the Syrian premier on June 6.

Meanwhile, opposition activists say Hijab has defected from the government. Some reports say he is now in Jordan.

The report of Hijab’s dismissal comes amid clashes between Syrian army forces and terrorists in Aleppo.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Damascus says ‘outlaws, saboteurs, and terrorists’ are behind the unrest, while the opposition accuses the security forces of killing protesters.

The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the armed insurgents are foreign nationals.