The Syrian ambassador to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Abdel Latif Al Dabbagh defected on Wednesday, a day after his wife Lamia Hariri, who is also the Syrian ambassador to Cyprus, defected from the Syrian regime.

The Syrian National Council spokesman Mohamed Sermini announced Al Dabbagh's defection on Radio Sawa, a 24-hour 7-day-a-week Arabic language radio station broadcasting in the Arab world.

Two sources in the Syrian opposition have told Reuters that Hariri left the diplomatic mission in Nicosia on Tuesday.

She has now reportedly arrived in Qatar.

These two defections follow the defection Nawaf al-Fares, Syria's ambassador to Iraq who left for Qatar this month after publicly renouncing his post.