A potent threat to Syria rises in exile

"When he was powerful in Syria, no investor could enter their business in Syria without the OK of Khaddam," says Marwan Kabalan, a professor of political science at Damascus University. "Khaddam was the one who was always sent to Saudi Arabia by Hafez al-Assad. He had strong connections to Saudi businessmen, including the Saudi royal family and King Abdallah."

But Khaddam's power waned after Bashar al-Assad assumed power in 2000. Tensions between Khaddam and Assad allegedly came to a climax in 2004 when Assad moved to extend the term of Hariri's adversary, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, say analysts.

Muhanad Baaly, a government worker, says Khaddam could never become a legitimate leader of the opposition. "Khaddam does not care about the future of his country," he says. "He only cares about himself and his children. A man who has been stealing from the country for 40 years, and now he's clean and speaking about democracy?"

And the fact that he's speaking against the Syrian government from his lavish home in Paris, at a time when Syria remains under intense international pressure, has also angered many.

"I would have expected Mr. Khaddam to call a press conference with the international media here in Damascus to say I have a different agenda for our political life, to say that the agenda of Mr. Bashar is not suitable," says Muhammad al-Habash, a member of parliament. "If he had done that, he could have helped us move toward a more open civil society and democracy in Syria. But unfortunately he is choosing to work with other powers and this is dangerous for Syria."

Nonetheless, some of the most stalwart critics of Khaddam and his past say he could at least help the country's floundering internal and external opposition movement gather momentum.

"Perhaps [Khaddam's] role is to quicken the fraying of the regime," says Yassin Haj-Saleh, an opposition leader and writer who spent 16 years in prison under Hafez al-Assad. "He has opened a gap that the opposition can exploit. The Syrian public is now seeing a big man from within the regime say this regime did so and so. So perhaps this will encourage the public and the people within the regime to think differently about the future of the country."

But, without the link of another strongman within the country and without greater outright popular support, many say that real change is difficult. "Nobody can undo the system unless they are from inside the system," says one Syrian dissident who asked not to be named. "He's someone who could lead us through a transitional period. And, yes, he's corrupt - but not as much as those from the Assad family."

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