The showdown between Syrian defector Abdul-Halim Khaddam and the Baath regime in Damascus heats up, reports Sami Moubayed The war of words between former Vice- President Abdel-Halim Khaddam and the Syrian regime continued this week after Khaddam's groundbreaking interview on the Saudi TV channel Al-Arabiya in December 2005 in which he criticised Bashar Al-Assad's era. One week later, in a series of back-to-back interviews with leading media agencies including CNN, BBC, United Press International, France 3, Al-Hayat, Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, and Al-Hurra Radio, Khaddam is publicly calling for the overthrow of this regime. His first interview enraged Syrian authorities, who immediately responded by expelling him from the Baath Party, stripping him of his Syrian passport, seizing his family assets in Syria, and labeling him a traitor who had done a cheap favour to Israel and the United States by saying that Syria might have been involved in the murder of Lebanon's former Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri. In retaliation, Khaddam upped his attack on the Baathists in Syria. First, to the great displeasure of the Syrian regime, he met with Detlev Mehlis, head of the UN commission in the Al-Hariri Affair and gave a testimony which although undeclared, most probably incriminated Syrian officials in the murder. "I spoke about precise facts. It is up to the (UN) commission to evaluate them" he said from his exile in Paris. In his interview with CNN, Khaddam defended himself saying that unlike what the Syrian parliamentarians had said, he was not a traitor. "The traitor is the one who causes damage to the country and to the people. Bashar Al-Assad has taken serious decisions and brought serious damage to Syria. One of those decisions was to have the Lebanese presidency extended for President Lahoud and that led to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Al-Hariri. In talking to the London-based Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, Khaddam asked: is it heresy to criticise Bashar Al-Assad who led the country to this condition? Khaddam then blamed Al-Assad for ordering Al-Hariri's elimination saying: the decision comes from the top of the pyramid. Why would Rustom Ghazaleh want to kill Rafik Al-Hariri? Because he was competing with him for the premiership? Everybody in Syria, both the opposition and government alike, have criticised Khaddam for speaking out, claiming that his history does not enable him to speak about democracy or combating corruption. The journalist Ali Jamalo, however, ran several articles about the Khaddam family and their assets, published with a massive number of remarks from Syrian readers who were critical of Khaddam. Film director Omar Amiralay said: "He (Khaddam) is responsible for so many mistakes and crimes that he won't find a place for himself in democratic Syria." The outspoken director added: "For 40 years he was one of the worse figures with most crimes especially in what is related to Syria's occupation of Lebanon. The writer Michel Kilo, however, said: "If Khaddam wants to join us in this demand (for democracy) then so be it. It is a just and justified demand, regardless of Mr Khaddam's intentions. Meanwhile, Ali Sadr Al-Din Al-Baynouni, the exiled leader of the banned Syrian Muslim Brotherhood, said from London that he was willing to work with Khaddam to bring democratic change to Syria. Speaking with the London-based Al-Zamman newspaper, Baynouni added: "We in the Muslim Brotherhood have no objection against working with any true opposition figure, either from inside or outside the regime." For his part, Khaddam said that all the opposition in Syria was patriotic, even the Muslim Brotherhood. On another note, the UN requested a meeting with President Bashar Al-Assad and his Foreign Minister Farouk Al-Shara. In an interview with the Egyptian Al-Osbou Al-Arabi, Assad said that he wanted to cooperate with the UN Commission, but hinted that he would refuse the request to meet judge Detlev Mehlis saying: "They want to meet President Bashar, but the president of the republic has international immunity as you know. To show seriousness, however, in pursuing the Al-Hariri affair, Syria re-shuffled the Syrian Commission investigating the murder of AL-Hariri. The commission had been created by Al-Assad after the passing of UN Resolution 1559, calling on Syria to cooperate with the UN probe. Judge Ghada Murad was replaced by ex-Justice Minister Nabil Al-Khatib, a loyalist to Al-Assad who was a member of the central committee of the Baath Party since 2000. This change is intended to project a new positive image to the outside world, especially since Mehlis criticised the Syrian commission's activities in his second report, issued in mid-December 2005, saying that its role was to compliment and assist, not replace, the UN Commission. Meanwhile, speculations mounted in Syria and on some Arab Web sites and newspapers that Khaddam was soon to be followed by his ex-comrade General Ali Douba, the veteran military intelligence commander of Syria. These were denied by sources close to General Douba. It is also believed that a general amnesty might be issued by President Bashar Al-Assad to show the world that it was Khaddam who was behind the continued detention of political prisoners and not the Syrian president. If such a step is taken, it would mean the release of the economist Aref Dalilah, and the two parliamentarians Riyad Sayf and Maamoun Al-Homsi, all arrested in 2001. Sayf and Homsi are due for release in September 2006, when their term ends, while Dalilah's sentence expires in 2011.
