On the sidelines of the meeting of the General Secretariat of the Front in Brussels, Khaddam: The Salvation Front will focus on the work in Syria to accelerate the process of change.
Dissident former Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam announced yesterday Thursday that the Salvation Front, an opposition party he founded with the comptroller general of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Ali Sadr al-Din al-Bayanouni, and other opponents, would focus on working in Syria in the next phase in order to accelerate the process of change. Khaddam said in an interview with United Press International on the sidelines of the Front's General Secretariat meeting in Brussels, the Belgian capital, that the Front's activity so far has focused so much on work outside the Syria while establishing contacts in the country, but the work will move in the next stage inwards to accelerate the process of change.
But he refused to give details on the ways and means the Front will use to communicate with inside Syria for security reasons.
He denied that any Arab party had contacted the Front following President Bashar al-Assad's speech last month, in which he criticized some Arab leaders for criticizing Hezbollah during the recent confrontation with Israel in Lebanon. . there were contacts between us and an Arab party, but this is not the case, which means that there are not many common alliances with Arab countries.
He added: “At the Salvation Front, we believe that Syria is now isolated at the Arab level due to the reckless policies of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his attacks on Arab countries and the severing of Syrian ties with them. »
Khaddam, who announced his defection from the regime on December 30, considered it normal that we agree on our approaches to Arab solidarity with our brothers in Arab governments. He stressed that the entire Arab situation is on one side and that the Syrian regime is on the other side and that there is an intersection of positions between the National Salvation Front and the general Arab position on the danger of tearing apart the Arab situation and the danger of removing Syria from the Arab circle.
Khaddam, accused of high treason by the Syrian People's Assembly (Parliament) after his defection, ruled out the possibility that the Syrian regime could correct the defect in its Arab relations, particularly with Saudi Arabia, adding that Bashar al- Assad cut the point of return, made his decision, withdrew from the Arab circle and placed it in the Iranian circle.
He stressed that President Al-Assad believes that Arab countries are incapable of protecting him and that if he becomes a link in Iranian strategy, it will be able to provide him with the protection he wants, and at least if he is forced To fly with his family to a place of accommodation, he would not find shelter to shelter him and a warm embrace like the Iranian embrace.
Commenting on the absence of the Syrian president at the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement in Cuba, Khaddam said that Bashar al-Assad is not sleeping and that he is extremely concerned about the internal situation and fears that in the event of his absence, he's not coming back. I am sure and I know very well that Bashar does not sleep and moves from bed to office. » From office to bed, he decided not to go to Cuba after examining the internal situation and seeing that it was dangerous. instructed his Foreign Minister, Walid Al-Muallem, to attend the summit.
While believing that things had not yet reached the stage of a power struggle in Syria, he said that parts of Bashar's family were concerned, notably his son-in-law, General Assef Shawkat (head of the Syrian army). Military Intelligence Division), which, according to some media, recently represented a possible alternative. This question firmly anchored itself in the mind of (President) Bashar and Assef became his obsession, which led him to practically freeze him, change the officers close to him, and limited his powers in the recent period : he has now become dependent on Assef's assistant and no longer on Assef himself. In a remarkable stance, Khaddam praised Major General Asif Shawkat, describing him as a courageous, intelligent and educated officer and one of the most prominent security officers in Syria, with strong external relations as he coordinated between Syrian military intelligence services and Western intelligence. services, particularly in the United States and Europe.
As for whether Assef Shawkat is qualified to succeed the Syrian president, Khaddam al-Balad responded: No one who maintains this regime is qualified, but what I mentioned about Assef represents my opinion of this man.
Concerning the situation in the occupied Golan, he considered that the decision to calm the situation was not new and that it had been taken after the breakdown of the partnership with Egypt and the escalation of tensions with Iraq. " A framework that protects you from aggression and not within the framework of the possibility of liberating the territory. Therefore, Soviet aid at that time was no longer sufficient to enter into war. Based on this, the decision to calming the Golan was a strategic decision.
He continued, as for the reasons for the lack of resistance in the Golan, they are due to the fact that the late President Hafez al-Assad had given strict instructions to the military security services and the armed forces to prevent any infiltration into the Golan. Golan. to take any action, even if the separation of forces agreement did not prohibit it, because he believed, by all accounts, that apostasy. Israeli actions do not allow Syria to withstand it, nor the capacity to respond effectively. gender. Therefore this issue has been frozen
Regarding the attack on the US embassy in Damascus, Khaddam said: "I don't have data on this, but some believe that the operation was organized by the security services based on the fact that The area in which the incident occurred is located in a 100% protected security zone, which means that if an ant enters it, it will be subject to it." For control, how can car bombs enter this tiger-free zone? There are hundreds, not to mention thousands, of security personnel deployed around the president's house, in front of the presidential palace, embassies and the homes of some officials. This point view may or may not be correct.
He added that there is another point of view which considers the operation to be terrorist. If it was truly terrorist, it means that the regime of Bashar al-Assad, with its corruption and tyranny, and its refusal to carry out reforms in the country and its continued policy of monopoly of power, has placed people in front of a wall closed, which pushed them to frustration and therefore extremism. He warned that the danger that threatens Syria now is not the fall of the regime which claims that Syria will turn into a new Iraq if it falls, but this is not true, because the situation in Syria could become the same as in Iraq if this regime continues, because it is its continuation that will lead to extremism.
