Erstellt am: 12. 7. 2012 - 13:13 Uhr

Defections and Objections

Reality Check: Syrian Ambassador deserts Assad; Jewish & Muslim groups join forces to denounce German circumcision ruling.

Syria

The Syrian ambassador to Iraq has deserted the Assad regime and declared in a Facebook video that he has “joined the ranks of the revolution”. Nawaf al-Fares has close ties to the Syrian security services, and is the first senior diplomat to defect. The news comes a week after the defection of Manaf Tlas, a brigadier general in the elite Republican Guard and a close friend of Assad. Meanwhile the United Nations Security Council is making little headway on deciding what the next steps should be to address the Syria crisis. But is the regime of Bashar Al-Assad beginning to crumble? Syrian analyst Rime Allaf gives us her take on the situation:

EPA/Bea Kallos

Germany & Circumcision

Muslim and Jewish groups have together denounced a controversial court ruling which says that circumcision amounts to bodily harm. In June, a court in Cologne ruled that the procedure should only be carried out on consenting adults. The ruling came in the case of a ruling in the case of a four-year old Muslim boy who suffered bleeding after such an operation. Now European Jewish and Muslim groups have issued a joint statement saying circumcision is fundamental to their faiths and should be given legal protection. An update from our Berlin correspondent Kate Connolly: