Where Does Khaddam Stand?

“I had to choose between the regime or the nation, and I chose the nation.”

Abdul-Halim Khaddam intends on returning to Syria, as he has stated during an interview tonight on Al-Arabiya. When asked the question “Who killed Rafik Hariri?”, he suggested that we wait for the investigative commission to release its verdict, describing the Mehlis report as professional, and not political – even though the crime was a political crime – but that it was politicized by others. He suggested the right question to ask would be with regards to the nature of the relationship between Syria and Hariri. However, he did say that the assassination could not happen unless the jihaz was both strong and capable, although he insisted that the Syrian jihaz could not do so on its own. In addition, he argued that only an idiotic person would believe the Abu-Addas story.

Several months before Lahoud’s extension, Hariri received harsh words from Bashar Al-Assad, such as “I will erase anyone who goes against our decisions.” Apparently, Khaddam discussed with Assad that this was not the way to converse with the prime minister of Lebanon, especially since Hariri had a nose bleed due to the stress of the conversation.

Khaddam also said that he had opposed placing Lahoud as president, and opposed the subsequent extension, because “Lebanon cannot handle a military regime.” Hariri spoke with Khaddam and asked for his opinion, to which Khaddam said “Extend, then resign.” In a meeting with Mohsen Dalloul several months before the assassination, he told Dalloul to advise Hariri to leave Lebanon because of his position in Syria, although he “never thought Syria would kill Hariri.”

He also blamed Lebanon for pushing Syria to the corner it is now in by stating that there was “planning on the Lebanese side” to do so. In his own personal reminisces, he began discussing Aoun in 1990, and claimed that Aoun’s demise was due to a Lebanese demand, even though he had asked Hraoui to place Aoun as the Minister of Defense. He admitted that Syria had intervened in the formation of Lebanese governments, and apparently is of the opinion that Syria should have implemented the Taef after the Israeli withdrawal. At that time, he could not seriously suggest these things because he had left the Lebanese realm in 1998.

Khaddam accused Rustom Ghazaleh of being a thief, of acting as if “he was the prime ruler of Lebanon, and of taking $ 35 million dollars from Bank Al-Madina. He had questioned Assad on the reasons for keeping Ghazaleh in Lebanon, and had asked him to change him, but Assad ended up rewarding Ghazaleh.

Surprising as it was to see an exclusive interview with Khaddam, he did not discuss anything new. Unless I’m mistaken, what is new is that this is the first time a Syrian official directly accuses Syria of intervening in Lebanese affairs, of threatening Hariri (both in the example above and with an example concerning Ghazaleh), and of corruption (he also gives examples of corruption within the Syrian regime). He did not directly blame Syria for the assassination, but that isn’t something anyone would expect him to do. I would have liked the interviewer to have asked him some other questions, such as “Who was responsible for the attempt on Marwan Hamade” (considering that a fair amount of air time was given to the issue of the presidential extension). Khaddam also mentioned several times that Asad spoke politely to people (excluding the threat mentioned above). Considering what Khaddam has said – which, although not harsh enough, strongly deviates from the typical Syrian Regime line – he seems confident that he will return. Why?

posted by Lazarus, 1:45 PM