Former Syrian Prime Minister Riyad Hijab said on Tuesday August 14, that President Bashar Assad’s government is falling apart and controls only 30 percent of the country, Reuters reported. In his first public appearance since defecting to the opposition, Hijab told a news conference in Jordan that the government’s spirits were low after struggling for 17 months to crush the revolt against Assad’s rule. He urged officers in the military to defect and join the opposition. He also called on rebels to work harder to unify their fractious ranks. Syrian authorities said they had dismissed Hijab before he fled, but he told the news conference in Amman that he resigned and defected to the opposition, referring to the Assad government as an “enemy of God.”