With a video posted on YouTube Wednesday, Syrian deputy oil minister Abdo Hussameddin announced his defection from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Hussameddin had served the Syrian government for 33 years and is the highest level political figure to abandon the government for the rebellion. “I am joining the revolution of the people who reject injustice and the brutal campaign of the regime,” Hussameddin states in the video. Jim Muir is a correspondent for our partner the BBC.