AP: Former Syria VP Says Assad Should Go ("regime change" in Syria)

[allemand]

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon - A former Syrian vice president who has openly broken with President Bashar Assad intensified his criticism Thursday, saying the Damascus regime had outlived its time and was unlikely to survive much longer.

Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who left his post in the Syrian government in June, was asked in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press interview from Paris whether he supported regime change.

Yes," he replied adding that he had no personal interest in leading the drive to oust Assad.

"This is the least of my concerns. What concerns me is for the Syrian people to recover their freedom and their ability to decide their own fate," he said.

More:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060105/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_syria_1


Does he have any personal motive for accusing president Assad of involvement in the Hariri murder? Nah...

:sarcasm:

Former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam is planning to form a government-in-exile, Kuwait's daily newspaper as-Seyassah reported Wednesday.

The pro-government paper quoted unidentified sources close to Khaddam as saying he has started consulting with former Syrian military officers who had defected to "end the bad situation, of which (President Bashar) Assad is responsible."

Analysis: A Syrian government in exile?
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060104-071050-4767r

[lovuian]

1. He just maybe the puppet Bush is looking for in Syria

They have been after Assad to step down or play their game...

Syria maybe changing like Libya ...

[allemand]

2. Debka speaks of a "US-French drive against Syrian president Bashar Assad"

Until Wednesday night, the most significant strategic game in progress in the Middle East (aside from Iraq) was the US-French drive against Syrian president Bashar Assad, which is far from over.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1130

Debka is a right-wing Israeli intelligence website. They ought to know.

Yesterday Jack Straw who is currently on a visit to Lebanon said that "it's showtime for Syria".

[Moderator]

3. K

[allemand]

5. Two different interviews (Associated Press and Asharq al-Awsa)!

Also, in the second interview he is much more radical, saying that he is personally involved in "rallying the Syrian opposition parties", while in the first interview he still declared that he had "no personal interest in leading the drive to oust Assad".

Therefore I thought that it merited a thread of its own.

[allemand]

4. Khaddam plans to topple Assad (Syrian Chalabi)

Friday 06 January 2006, 11:32 Makka Time, 8:32 GMT
A former Syrian vice-president says he is seeking to topple the government through a popular uprising.

Abdel-Halim Khaddam told the Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat that he was rallying Syrian opposition parties to "create the right atmosphere for the Syrian people to topple the regime".

In an interview from his home in Paris on Friday he said: "This regime cannot be reformed, so there is nothing left but to oust it. The Syrian people will be the ones to oust it."

Khaddam's remarks were the latest salvo in an unprecedented verbal attack against Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria. (...)

Asked if he would seek help from foreign governments to end al-Assad's rule, Khaddam said: "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."

More:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/806C114A-2385-4C04-B553-3FB6C6EFCFC9.htm


Council on Foreign Relations:

Abdel Halim Khaddam, former vice president. Khaddam is a Sunni, although his wife is Alawite. He served as foreign minister of Syria from 1970-84, then as vice president. He was instrumental in working with Kenaan to exert Syrian control over Lebanon and had a very close relationship with both Hafez al-Assad and Rafik Hariri. He is also alleged to have profited financially from his time in Lebanon. Experts say he is currently living in Paris and actively holding meetings with European and U.S. officials about Syria’s future.
http://www.cfr.org/publication/9085/syrias_leaders.html

Khaddam has a track record of more than 30 years of brutal oppression, murder and corruption. He is actually much worse than Chalabi.

[allemand]

6. Khaddam: "Muslim Brothers ... have come up with a new liberal agenda"

You’re not afraid that the Muslim Brotherhood will get all the ballots?
No. In Syria, Christians and Muslims have a religious consciousness, but they are not fanatics. It’s a kind of mosaic of religions in equilibrium. And the Muslim Brothers now have enhanced their way of thinking, and they have come up with a new liberal agenda. And naturally when we talk about an open and democratic state, everyone is welcome to present his agenda.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10728635/site/newsweek/page/3/

It's nice to know that Khaddam's new found love for the Muslim Brotherhood is not unrequited:

Another group firmly supporting Khaddam is the Islamists, who are fiercely anti-Bashar.
http://www.upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060104-071050-4767r