Abdul Halim Khaddam, the former vice president of the late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad and the opposition figure residing in Paris, considers any negotiations with the regime or contemplating negotiations as “national betrayal.”
In an interview with the Algerian newspaper “El Chourouk” published on its website on Tuesday evening, Khaddam stated, “Any negotiations with the regime or contemplating negotiations are considered national betrayal. This regime has committed genocide, destruction, killed over a hundred thousand Syrians, and demolished 40% of Syria, carrying out sectarian massacres.”
He added, “We will not sit except on the grave of Bashar al-Assad. Dialogue with him is impossible. He will fall. He still holds a position of strength with Russia and China behind him. Let him go to Russia and China.”
He continued, “This criminal is the head of the country; he uses the army he established to protect the Syrian people, turning it into a tool for killing Syrians.”
Khaddam rejected the mission of the UN-Arab Joint Envoy to Syria, Algerian Lakhdar Brahimi, calling him “incompetent and unqualified for this work altogether.”
He elaborated, “The entire Syrian opposition rejects Lakhdar Brahimi because he came trying to establish a dialogue with Bashar al-Assad. Bashar al-Assad is finished for the Syrians; he is a killer and a gang leader. He will be killed, and he will be uprooted from Syria.”
He also affirmed that “the pressures, oppression, and crimes committed by the regime formed an underground pressure that paved the way for a revolution that erupted like volcanoes in Syria.”
Khaddam criticized the Algerian government’s position on what is happening in Syria and accused it of not being “loyal” to the Syrian people. He pointed out that the Algerian president made a big mistake, not only against the Syrian people but also against the Algerian people. He called on the Algerian government to take a stance similar to the majority of Arab countries, “condemning the killings, severing ties with the regime, closing the embassy, and assisting the Syrian people.”
Khaddam emphasized that he respects all factions of the opposition and focuses his efforts on assisting the domestic situation, describing the formation of the coalition for a government without land as a mistake.
