A FORMER Syrian vice president who has openly broken with President Bashar Assad has intensified his criticism, saying the Damascus regime has outlived its time and is unlikely to survive much longer.
Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who left his post in the Syrian government in June, was asked in an interview with AP whether he supported regime change.
“Yes,” he replied, adding that he had no personal interest in leading the drive to oust Mr Assad.
“This is the least of my concerns. What concerns me is for the Syrian people to recover their freedom and their ability to decide their own fate,” he said.
Mr Khaddam, who was deeply involved in the Syrian presence in Lebanon, said Mr Assad’s “mistakes” on the domestic and international front had weakened the Syrian regime beyond repair to the point where “it can no longer reform itself. It has become like a model 1916 car.”
“I am convinced that the regime committed big mistakes against Syria and Lebanon… and consequently it must shoulder its responsibility in front of the Syrian people,” Mr Khaddam said.
“I think the regime has no chance of surviving in the long term.”
Mr Khaddam, a one-time stalwart of the ruling Ba’ath party, formally declared his break with the Assad regime in an interview with satellite TV station Al-Arabiya on December 30, in which he lashed out at the Syrian leadership and criticised it for corruption and failure to reform.
He also said that former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri was threatened by Syria months before he was assassinated.
That claim made him the first former top member of the Syrian government to confirm allegations in a UN commission report that Mr Assad threatened Hariri in an August 2004 meeting.
The UN probe into Hariri’s killing has already implicated Syria, but Damascus has denied the allegations. Hariri was assassinated in a truck bombing in Beirut on February 14, 2005.
Mr Khaddam’s remarks on Al-Arabiya caused an uproar in Syria, where he was declared a traitor who should stand trial, be stripped of his membership in the ruling Ba’ath party and have his assets impounded.
