Abdul-Halim Khaddam, the former vice president of Syria and opposition figure residing in the French capital Paris, considers any negotiations with the regime or even contemplating negotiations to be “national betrayal.”
Khaddam stated in an interview with the Algerian newspaper “El Chourouk Al Youmi,” published on its website on Tuesday evening: “Any negotiations with the regime or even thinking about negotiations are considered national betrayal. This regime has committed genocide, destruction, and killed over a hundred thousand Syrians, demolishing 40% of Syria and carrying out sectarian massacres.”
He added: “We will not sit except on the grave of Bashar al-Assad. Dialogue with him is impossible. (Bashar) will fall. He still holds a position of strength, backed by Russia and China. Let him go to Russia and to China.”
He continued: “This criminal is the head of the country, using the army he established to protect the Syrian people, which has turned into a tool to kill Syrians.”
Khaddam rejected the mission of the joint UN-Arab envoy to Syria, Algerian Lakhdar Brahimi, stating: “All Syrian opposition rejects Lakhdar Brahimi because he came trying to establish a dialogue with Bashar al-Assad. Bashar al-Assad is over for the Syrians; he is a murderer and a gang leader who will be removed from Syria.”
He also emphasized that “the pressures, persecution, and crimes committed by the regime have formed an underground pressure that paved the way for a revolution that erupted like volcanoes in the Syrian interior.”
