Assad, other Syrians, threatened Hariri -Khaddam
DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and other top officials threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri who was assassinated in February, a former Syrian vice president said.
"Hariri received many threats," Abdel-Halim Khaddam told Al Arabiya television in an interview aired on Friday. "Assad told me he had delivered some very, very harsh words to Hariri ... something like 'I will crush anyone who tries to disobey us'."
A U.N. probe into Hariri's killing has implicated senior Syrian officials.
Ex-VP Khaddam denounces Syrian government
DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) - Former Syrian Vice President Abdulhalim Khaddam on Friday denounced the government of President Bashar al-Assad, saying it had committed many mistakes during its domination of neighbouring Lebanon.
In an interview with Arab satellite television Al Arabiya from Paris, Khaddam listed what he said were examples of political blunders by Syria in Lebanon. The channel said it would air the full interview at 1900 GMT.
His remarks were a rare attack on the Syrian government by a former official. Khaddam, veteran aide to Syria's late President Hafez al-Assad, stepped down in June, almost five months after the Feb. 14 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
He had been pointman on Lebanon for the late Assad, who ordered Syria's military intervention in the civil war there in 1976. Syrian forces stayed until April this year. In the brief excerpt aired by Al Arabiya, Khaddam criticised Bashar al-Assad's apparent protection of Lt. General Rustom Ghazali, Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon. Diplomatic sources Ghazali was among those questioned by U.N. investigators probing Hariri's killing.
"Why is Rustom Ghazali being protected and we all know his vices. This is a question that the Syrians are asking," Khaddam said. "I told Bashar several times that he should remove him."
Damascus, the main power-broker in Lebanon after the 1975-1990 civil war, has denied involvement in the truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others. However, in his latest report, U.N. investigator Detlev Mehlis said he had more evidence to implicate senior Syrian officials in the assassination.