In Algeria – UPI – Former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, who defected from the ruling regime years ago, urged the Arab League to expedite its punitive measures against Syria as it did with Libya, calling for foreign intervention in his country. In a statement to the Algerian newspaper “El Chourouk,” he considered the decision to suspend Syria’s membership in the Arab League “a positive but awkward step because it gives (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad a new deadline to stay in power.”
Khaddam said, “The Arab League made the decision to freeze, knowing that President Assad will not resort to any changes.” He called on the Arab League to “elevate its decisions to the Security Council and take the same steps it took with Libya in March of last year.” Khaddam considered that the Arab initiative “did not go in the direction desired by the Syrian people, did not adopt their central cause, which is overthrowing the regime. Instead, it gives President Bashar al-Assad the opportunity to continue in power.” He said, “We are not demanding the overthrow of the state but the political system that seized it.”
Khaddam expected that President Bashar al-Assad would meet the same fate as Gaddafi and called for “foreign intervention because the Syrian government has become an occupying government and does not reflect the national dimension, evidenced by the thousands of killed, detained, and missing.” He said, “Those who reject military intervention in Syria must find an alternative to overthrow a regime that uses overwhelming military force against an unarmed people who only have their throats.” Khaddam considered that “Iran has put all its weight in Syria, but it will not be able to put more weight than that. It sent weapons and war advisers. As for Hezbollah, it cannot intervene because it knows that any involvement with Syria will have negative repercussions on the party.”
