Posted on 12/31/2005 12:53:00 PM PST by HAL9000
CAIRO , December 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - The bombshell dropped by former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam on a possible Syrian role in the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri has sent seismic waves in Damascus and would tighten the noose around the Arab country, experts agreed on Saturday, December 31.“Khaddam’s testimony at this critical juncture in Syrian history has, in effect, sent shock waves across the country’s political landscape and ushered in grave consequences,” Syrian opposition writer Akram Al-Beni told IslamOnline.net.
Speaking from Paris, where he has lived since resigning as vice-president in June, Khaddam said in an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya news channel on Friday, December 30, that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad threatened Hariri just months before his murder.
He said the Syrian intelligence services could not have carried out such an operation without Assad being informed.
Khaddam also blamed Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and other Lebanese officials for “inciting” Assad against Hariri, who was once a staunch ally of Damascus but who backed a 2004 UN resolution that called for foreign troops to quit Lebanon .
The murder of Hariri, a billionaire businessman and five-time prime minister, plunged Lebanon into political turmoil and heightened international pressure on Syria to end its 29-year military presence in its smaller neighbor.
Regime Collapse
Beni said Khaddam’s bombshell will expedite the collapse of the regime in Syria as it was dropped by one of the old guards and a veteran member of the ruling Baath party.
The Syrian analyst said the testimony will cast a harsh light on the “wrong-headed” policies of the Syrian regime in Lebanon and could pave the way for more revelations from senior Syrian officials in the days to come.
Ali Sadrudin Al-Bayouni, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria , saw eye to eye with Beni that Khaddam’s stance could force a regime change in Syria and turn it into a democratic country.
“Khaddam’s testimony will break up the power monopoly in Syria ,” he said.
On the international probe into the February 14 murder of Hariri, Beni said Khaddam’s testimony will definitely give impetus to the role of the UN investigation commission.
“This testimony refutes previous ones, which discredited the interim report of former judge Detlev Mehlis and acquitted Syria from the killing,” he said.
Beni was referring to Hosam Taher Hosam, a key Syrian witness in the report, who has recanted his testimony and accused Lebanese officials of threats, bribery and torture to induce him to testify falsely against Syria .
Lebanese opposition Druze leader Walid Jumblatt agreed.
“This testimony gives credit indeed to the UN probe into the grisly murder of Hariri,” Jumblatt told Lebanon ’s Al-Mostakbal newspaper on Saturday.
In his interview, Khaddam would not speculate on who had ordered Hariri's murder, saying “we must wait” for the final results of a UN investigation that has already implicated senior Syrian officials.
In an October interim report, Mehlis implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the plot to kill Hariri.
After the report, the Security Council warned Syria it had to cooperate fully with the UN team or face further action that could lead to sanctions.
Syria has denied the accusations and called the Mehlis report politically motivated.
Treason
Meanwhile, Syrian lawmakers called on Saturday for Khaddam to be tried for treason and corruption.
“I ask the Syrian leadership to try him ... for humiliating 10 million Syrians when he said half of the Syrian people are eating from the garbage,” legislator Umeima Faddoul told an emergency session of Syria parliament.
“I tell him, those who eat from the garbage are traitors like you ... Treason is the darkest shade of black,” Reuters quoted her as saying.
Legislator after legislator stood up in parliament to accuse Khaddam of corruption and treason.
“His comments last night constitute a criminal offence that reaches the level of treason and we demand he be put to trial before the Syrian security high court,” said one lawmaker.
Syria 's parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Al-Abrash said he had been bombarded with phone calls from Syrians demanding that Khaddam be arrested by Interpol.
I'm surprised that IslamOnline (or anyone else in the MidEast) would care. I thought it was perfectly fine for Muslims to kill Muslims, and only bad when Westerner's do it.
Bush receives the Nobel Prize and Dems lose big in November.
Why not aim high!?
Everyone has known of Syria's involvement, which had to
have been blessed by Assad, since a few minutes after the
blast, if not prior to it.
Why then are Khaddam's statements now all that significant?
Because it makes life all but impossible for the apologists.
Has Assad's Peace Prize arrived yet?
Aim high? You are high.
When Iran launches its nuclear missiles toward Israel they ought to be on pins and needles hoping they don't incinerate Damascus or Cairo. Israel is a small target and a slight drift one way or the other would totally reverse the intended effect.
That was my impression, too: Muslims are never wrong, even when they're eating their own.
Critical mass is soon approaching Boy Assad..
So pull the lever for the trapdoor alreaaaady.
Well, it's the night for aiming high. But Liberals and the Nobel committee, EU fools, would choke to death rather than honor GWB. Reminds me of the time RR was to give an important speech about communism, and it happened to the Harvard's 350th anniversary, (I think the year's right), and Deaver or someone discreetly asked Harvard if they were planning to ask RR to speak at their graduation ceremonies...as they'd asked sitting presidents to speak every fifty years. Harvard said, certainly NOT! So RR gave that speech at a high school, in Md. I think. Huge speech. The beginning of the end for Russia, the 'Evil Empire', and Harvard bit off their own nose to spite their face. Quite amusing.
Sounds like this coud be great news.
First sort poem for the new year. 'Libs aim high, why shouldn't I?"
Boy Assad,who'd take em?I'll bet he has a nice stash in Switzerland just in case.
They should be more concerned about Israels return fire.
Apparently some in Iran are not concerned with that at all.
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