Former Syrian VP says Assad must go
Khaddam says regime has outlived its time and would not survive much longer.
Former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam said Thursday that the regime of President Bashir Assad had
outlived its time. Mr. Khaddam, who is living in Paris under the protection of the French government, also told the
Associated Press during an interview there that he supported "regime change," but was not interested in personally leading the movement to remove Mr. Assad.
Khaddam, a one-time stalwart of the Baath Pary who left Syria in June, had been a leading figure in the Syrian government for the last 40 years, and was deeply involved with events in Lebanon. He said that Assad's "wrong vision" on the domestic and international fronts had weakened his regime to the point where it won't survive much longer. "It has become like a model 1916 car," he said.
"I am convinced that the regime committed big mistakes against Syria and Lebanon ... and consequently it must shoulder its responsibility in front of the Syrian people," Khaddam said. "I think the regime has no chance of surviving in the long term."
The
BBC reports that Khaddam also told the leading pan-Arab daily newspaper,
Asharq Alawat, that the pressure for change had to come from within Syria itself. And he said that Assad should "
go to prison for complicity in the murder of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri." The former Lebanese prime minister was killed by a car bomb last year. The United Nations is investigating his death. Assad has denied allegations linking him to the plot.
The
Guardian reported Tuesday that in an interview last week with the
Al Arabiya TV network, Khaddam said that Assad had warned Hariri before his death
not to interfere with Assad's plan to extend the term of Emile Lahoud as Lebanon's president.
... Mr Khaddam said Hariri had been "subjected to many threats" from Syria. He quoted Mr Assad as telling Hariri in August 2004: "You want to bring a [new] president in Lebanon ... I will not allow that. I will crush whoever attempts to overturn our decision."
Asharq Alawat reported Wednesday that after Khaddam made his remarks about Assad's warning to Hariri, members of the Syrian parliament described him as "a thief, a pervert, an animal, a traitor and a servant to the enemies." The deputies repeatedly asked "Where was Khaddam in the past forty years? Why did not intervene to
halt this corruption?"
Anwar Al-Bounni, the head of the Syrian Research and Legal Studies Center, writes in this week's Egyptian Weekly,
Al Ahram, that while Khaddam's remarks helped show the "fragility" of the Syrian regime, he isn't acting
purely out of noble instincts.
Khaddam is no Santa Claus, though. He had his own reasons for the disclosures. Under the Bashar regime, Khaddam was deprived from his former position of power. He was close to the slain prime minister and is still friends with his family. Khaddam knows that there is no real chance for real reform in Syria, despite the shenanigans. He is keenly aware that the world is looking for an alternative in Syria. And he knew that Arabs and non-Arabs alike want a smooth transition in Syria, not something radical.
Claude Salhani, a political analyst with
United Press International writes in the
Khaleej Times of the United Arab Emirates that there may be
two key reasons that Khaddam was allowed by the French government to move his family to Paris and to give the dramatic interviews to so many different media outlets. One is that French President Jacques Chirac was outraged when Hariri was killed. The second is that Khaddam was a close friend of Hariri's.
Khaddam took it upon himself to attend Hariri's funeral, which he did in his personal capacity, and not as the representative of the Syrian government. Khaddam was visibly emotional at the funeral, shaken by the murder of his friend. The
Los Angeles Times writes in an editorial that Khaddam's comments
justify a tougher international response.
The former vice president did not accuse Assad of ordering Hariri's assassination but said it could not have been done without the president's knowledge. That's ample justification for a tougher stance by the international community. If Assad continues to stonewall investigators, the UN should impose sanctions on Syria. China and Russia have veto power over sanctions, and both are reluctant to take such drastic action.
Moscow, as a longtime ally of Syria, is a particularly difficult stumbling block. But Russia needs to understand the concerns of neighboring nations such as Egypt, whose president, Hosni Mubarak, spent much time discussing Syria in his meetings Tuesday with Saudi Arabian King Abdullah and Wednesday with French President Jacques Chirac in Paris.
On Wednesday, British foreign minister Jack Straw said the international pressure on Syria was entirely deserved, and that it was "showtime" for the Assad regime. He said that Khaddam's claim about Assad's warning to Hariri was very serious.
ArabNews.com reports that Straw, who is on a visit to Beirut, called on Syria to recognize Lebanon as
a sovereign and independent state and to build diplomatic relations with the new Lebanese government.
Also...
•
Syria backs defiant Iran on nukes (Iran Focus)
•
NSA destroyed evidence of domestic spying (truthout.org)
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Tom Regan
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