Osama Saraya, the former editor-in-chief of “Al-Ahram” newspaper, said in “Al-Ahram Al-Arabi” magazine that “Khaddam was Assad’s black box.” He stated: “The favorite man of Hafez al-Assad has passed away. No one could get close to the late Syrian president during his life and in his power like Khaddam, his foreign minister for many years, then it ended with him becoming the vice president and eventually being pushed aside either on the shelf after the departure of his president or in the shadows during the life of his successor, President Bashar al-Assad.”
Saraya continued: “President Bashar continued to view Khaddam as his father’s reference, unable to isolate him, unable to deal with him, unable to listen to him; he avoided him, even feared him. Vice President Khaddam was not content to be in the shadows during the era of the son president. He decided to jump from the golden cage of power to the outside and chose to become an opposition figure.”
“For years, Khaddam represented the black box of his leader Assad. He remained closed, and no one could open it.”
Saraya continued: “I met with Khaddam, and I asked him: How could you accept that your friend, someone who trusted you and spoke about you as if he were talking about himself, would be killed?
Tears welled up in Khaddam’s eyes, and he said: ‘I am here because I did not accept it. I did not know who did it. I did not know who committed this heinous crime, who ordered it, and it was far from me. I do not know it.’ He remained silent.”
