Former Syrian Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam described President Bashar al-Assad as “the dictator who does not learn from the experiences of his predecessors, who were ousted by popular uprisings from the seats of power.”
Khaddam characterized the Syrian president as “an arrogant dictator incapable of learning, considering himself the master of knowledge. The hypocrites around him instilled in him the belief that the people love him, and due to his arrogance and psychological makeup, he cannot distinguish between right and wrong.”
Khaddam ruled out that Hezbollah would engage in any military escalation with Israel to attract attention and ease international pressure on the Syrian regime because Iran would not allow it. He considered the slogans raised by the Damascus regime as empty, stating that its “end is near.”
He also dismissed the possibility of Assad staging a coup against close figures within the ruling circles, such as Rami and Hafez Makhlouf and his brother Maher. He added, “I do not expect Bashar to stage a coup against his brother, and if tension arises between them, one of them will work to kill the other.”
He emphasized that Maher would not stage a coup against his brother, and “if he does, Iran will not support him as it is committed to supporting the regime,” denying the existence of defections within the ruling family.
He pointed out that “in principle, Syrians do not want external military intervention, but the regime in Syria is not a national regime. It has lost its legitimacy and is now a occupying force supported by a foreign state named Iran. If the international community fails to make a decision for severe sanctions against the regime and Bashar al-Assad, then all possibilities become justified.”