“The council of ministers has decided to grant the pilot, Colonel Hassan Maari Hamada, political asylum, on his request,”  Samih Maaytah told AFP news agency.

Meanwhile Syrian State TV SANA who identified the pilot as Colonel Hassan Maari Hamada said lost contact with the aircraft MiG-21 pilot while on a training mission near the border with Jordan.

The Syrian ministry of defense issued a statement obtained by SANA after having confirmed the landing of the fighter jet in Jordan, the pilot is considered a deserter, and a traitor to his country and would have to meet consequences of such actions under the military law.

The Ministry of Defense in its statement that it is communicating with the authorities in Jordan to arrange for the restoration of the MiG.

Syrian activists said Thursday’s development was the first defection involving an aircraft since the start of a 15-month-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.

More than 120,000 Syrians fleeing the violence in their homeland have taken refuge in Jordan, according to the Amman government.

The United Nations has registered 20,000 of them.

 More than 10,000 people have been killed in the Syrian uprising according to UN while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the number at more than 15000.