Aoun launches attack on Khaddam
Michel Aoun, the Lebanese Christian leader, has launched a scathing attack on Syria’s exiled former vice-president, accusing him of bearing responsibility for a string of assassinations.
On Saturday, Aoun called on Abdel-Halim Khaddam, an ex-Baath Party stalwart turned whistleblower who last month implicated Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, in the murder of Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister, to publicly explain the killings.
Aoun’s attack came on the same day Khaddam said he was forming a government in exile and predicted that al-Assad would be forced from power this year.
“Khaddam was for a long time responsible for the Lebanese file, and during the time that he was responsible there were many very unfortunate events which were similar to Hariri’s assassination,” Aoun told Dubai television.
Long the architect of Syria’s military and political domination of neighbouring Lebanon, Khaddam was entrusted with the Lebanese file during Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war.
Assassinations
“There were the (assassinations) of two presidents of the republic, Bashir Gemayel and Rene Moawad, and there was the (Sunni) mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, MP Nazem Al-Qadri … and Kamal Jumblatt,” said Aoun.
Aoun, who returned to Lebanon in May 2005 after 15 years in exile in France, added: “We had hoped that he would recall those days and let us know how these events took place.”
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Aoun himself lived in exile for 15 |
Earlier on Saturday, Khaddam, who now lives in Paris, told Germany’s weekly Der Spiegel magazine that the Syrian president was facing growing pressure from economic problems at home and the international investigation into the killing of al-Hariri.
Khaddam, who accuses al-Assad of ordering al-Hariri’s murder, said: “His fall has already begun. I don’t think his regime will last out this year.”
The former vice-president, for 30 years a confidant of al-Assad’s late father, Hafez al-Assad, left the government in June.
He has been accused of treason and expelled from the ruling Baath Party after a series of verbal attacks on the president.
Political change
Khaddam told the Associated Press earlier this month he wanted political change in Syria, saying the Damascus government had outlived its time and was unlikely to survive much longer.
Asked whether he supported regime change in Syria, Khaddam replied: “Yes.” He also said that he had no personal interest in leading the drive to remove al-Assad.
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“One should not make the mistake with the Syrian Baath Party that the Americans made with the Iraqi Baath Party” |
But when asked by Der Spiegel whether he was seeking to form a government-in-exile, he said: “That is correct.”
Khaddam said he would be ready to work with Islamist leaders, whom he called “part of the rich Islamic mosaic that defines the basic character of our country”, and the Baath Party.
“I would not rule out any political group that sticks to the basic rules of democracy,” he said.
“One should not make the mistake with the Syrian Baath Party that the Americans made with the Iraqi Baath Party.
Order to kill
“The majority of Baathists in Syria have long ago turned against the regime. They see the government’s mistakes every day.”
Khaddam also repeated the allegation he made earlier this week that al-Assad had ordered the murder of al-Hariri.
“I’m convinced: the order came from al-Assad,” he said. “He is an extremely impulsive man, he is always losing his cool.”
Syria has denied any role in the bomb blast that killed al-Hariri and 22 others in Beirut last year.