- NEW: Official: Manaf Tlas has been an "inside confidant" of Syria's president, official says
- NEW: Tlas' father is a former Syrian defense minister
- NEW: Tlas was perhaps the most senior Sunni in Bashar al-Assad's regime, expert says
- NEW: He was disgusted with the killing of Sunnis, a Western official says
Paris (CNN) -- Manaf Tlas, a Sunni general in Syria's elite Republican Guards, has defected, a Western diplomat said Friday, a stunning blow to the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Tlas, the son of a former Syrian defense minister and cousin of a first lieutenant in al-Assad's army, is possibly the most senior Sunni in a power structure dominated by the Alawiteminority.
"He's an inside confidant of Assad. So it counts that even an insider thinks it's time to go," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to speak to the media.
Syria has been engulfed in nearly 16 months of unrest. Thousands have died as Syrian government assaults against protesters led to a nationwide uprising.
Tlas is estranged from the regime over the killing of Sunnis, the official said. His father, former Defense Minister Mustafa Tlas, and the rest of his family are in Paris, the official said.
Reports of Tlas' defection first surfaced Thursday. It was not immediately clear whether he was making his way to Paris to join his family.
"If he has indeed fled the country, the regime will be thrown back on its heels," Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at the University of Oklahoma, said Thursday in a post on his blog Syria Comment.
Tlas "supported a policy of negotiation, flexibility and compromise" but "was overruled by the military leadership and has since looked for a way out."
For example, Tlas had been ordered to solve problems in the restive Damascus suburban towns of Harasta and Douma, Landis said.
"He did a good job by negotiating with the opposition leaders in both suburbs, agreeing that both government forces and opposition would pull back," Landis said.
But, Landis said, the "Alawi leadership said 'no, that is not how we are going to do this.' They pushed him aside and came down like a ton of bricks on the opposition in both neighborhoods, in an effort to assert state authority and crush the uprising through military means."
Tlas is "perhaps the most senior Sunni in the regime because he was a close friend of Bashar," Landis wrote.
"For 16 months the opposition has been complaining that elite Sunnis have not defected. That complaint can now, officially, be put to rest if the stories of Manaf's flight prove to be true. In March it was rumored that he had led with his father and brother, but those stories were false," he wrote.
Tlas exudes charisma, and Landis describes him as "smart, dashing and cunning."
"Manaf is as handsome as a movie star and carried a lot of authority. He was a true military guy and had spent his entire life in the military, unlike Bashar. People close to him say that when he walked into a room, all eyes turned to him. Not only did women find him attractive, but men did as well. He carried himself with an air of self-confidence and authority," Landis said.
The Tlas family has been part of the Syrian power structure during the tenure of Bashar and his father, Hafez Assad.
"When foreign statesmen or Syrians thought of a Sunni who could possibly take power, Manaf had to be at the top of the list or very close to the top," he said. "Manaf is respected by Bashar's generation and a military leader."
