Posted on 01/06/2006 2:50:32 AM PST by Stoat
Khaddam calls for Syrian revolt
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Mr Khaddam told the Pan-Arab al-Sharq al-Awsat that the pressure for change had to come from within Syria. On Thursday, he said Mr Assad should go to prison for complicity in the murder of former Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri. A UN-led inquiry implicated Syria in the murder, but Damascus denies any involvement in the killing. 'Reform impossible' Speaking from Paris, where he has lived under protection since resigning his post in June 2005, Mr Khaddam said he wanted opposition groups to "create the right atmosphere for the Syrian people to topple the regime".
"This regime cannot be reformed, so there is nothing left but to oust it," he said. "The Syrian people will be the ones to oust it." Mr Khaddam said he had not asked other nations to help Syria's opposition. "I did not contact anybody because change has to come from within. If the main vector for change is external, then the interests of the country are harmed." Prison In an interview with France 3 TV on Thursday, Mr Khaddam said the Syrian president should go to prison for his involvement in Mr Hariri's assassination in February. President Assad has denied allegations linking him to the plot. Mr Khaddam said he had not been surprised by the elimination of members of the Syrian opposition in Lebanon. "Those who are behind the assassinations will continue to kill, because their goal is to cause chaos in Lebanon," he said. "I am a target. My life is at risk, but I am not afraid." UN investigators have said they want to question Mr Khaddam soon, and he has promised further revelations. |
Profile: Abdul Halim Khaddam
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From his new base in Paris, he accused Syria's President Assad of threatening murdered Lebanese ex-PM Rafik Hariri in the months before his death. His comments on al-Arabiya television caused a storm of protest from the Syrian parliament, where MPs unanimously demanded he be put on trial for treason. But the interview sparked speculation elsewhere that an undeclared battle for the future of Syria was under way. Until his resignation in June 2004, Mr Khaddam had exercised considerable influence in Syrian politics for three decades and had been regarded as a leading hardliner.
Born in 1932, he was one of the longest-serving veterans in Damascus' Baathist regime. He was an official in the party by the 1960s, before being appointed foreign minister and deputy prime minister in the 1970s. In 1984 Mr Khaddam was promoted to the vice-presidency, and worked to assert Syria's dominance over Lebanon. He was seen as the architect of Syria's controversial policy of military presence and political dominance over Beirut. "Lebanon will either be united or will be returned to Syria," he said in 1976.
He served for many years under the late President Hafez al-Assad, transferring allegiance to his son Bashar when he took office in 2000 after his father's death. While in power, Mr Khaddam remained fiercely opposed to any loosening of the Baath Party's grip on power. In a newspaper interview in 2004, he said that those who suggested changing the regime either did not understand that this would jeopardise the "stability of the state" or "serve the plans of foreign elements and of Israel". 'Reformist' But in his comments to al-Arabiya, explaining his decision to resign, Mr Khaddam criticised the regime itself for failing to modernise and sought to portray himself as a reformist. He said he had quit because a series of major reforms, which would have boosted freedom and democracy, were not progressing. "I became convinced that the process of rehabilitation and reform, be it political, economic or administrative, will not kick off," he said. "So I decided to resign. I did some soul-searching and faced two options: to side either with the homeland or with the regime. "I chose to side with the homeland because it is the constant fact, whereas the regime is a transient state in the history of the country, just like other regimes elsewhere." Some observers see Mr Khaddam's extraordinary intervention from Paris as marking the start of a battle for the Syrian leadership. In the Syrian parliamentary debate which followed Mr Khaddam's television comments, one MP warned him: "If you dream of returning to Syria on a US tank, no citizen will accept that." And in Lebanon, an anti-Syrian MP told AFP news agency: "The battle of Damascus, the battle of the regime has begun." |
BTTT
Afghanstan - Liberated
Pakistan - Cooperating in the WOT
Iraq - Liberated
Libya - cowed
Lebanon - Freed of Syrian occupation
Iran - on verge of revolution
Syria - isolated
Egypt - holding new elections
Saudi Arabia - nuts in a vice pretending not to notice
The winds of change are definitely blowing.
I love good news summaries in the morning!
That's one news summary you won't find in the mainstream media. And when all the dominoes finally fall, they'll say it would have happened anyway to deny Bush any credit--as they did with Reagan.
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