Rome – UPI – Former Syrian Vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam stated yesterday that dialogue with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “means accepting his presence and the presence of his regime,” asking: “Who (from the opposition) dares to sit with the regime for a dialogue with him.”
The Italian news agency “AKI” quoted Khaddam as saying, “The Russians have not changed their position at all, and they still adhere to the principle of political dialogue with the Syrian regime to reach a solution.” He added that he told the Russian envoy Mikhail Bogdanov, whom he met on Sunday in Paris, that “any talk about dialogue with the criminal regime is futile, and this applies not only to the opposition but to every honorable Syrian.”
Khaddam wondered, “Who dares to sit with the regime for a dialogue with him, after all this destruction and ruin that he caused to Syria?” He pointed out that dialogue with Assad “means accepting his presence and the presence of his regime,” asking, “On what basis will this dialogue be? And how will the interlocutors agree?”
Khaddam considered that even if the head of the regime relinquishes power, the structure of the security system will not change. He said, “The problem is not in his person but in the tools of the regime.”
Commenting on the proposal to form a transitional government in Syria, he said that “a government without a program does not provide a solution; without a program, it cannot last for more than 10 days.” He considered that “the interim government is supposed to coincide with the collapse of the regime, and personally, I do not agree with the point of view that calls for forming a government in the presence of the killer regime, even if it includes all factions of the opposition.”
Khaddam pointed out that attempts by many opposition figures to crystallize this government “have failed, like all exile governments that lack a presence on the homeland.” He added, “We say frankly, there is currently no liberated territory that the regime cannot reach through its aircraft and artillery.”
He believed that “it is possible to expedite the overthrow of the regime by forming a coalition from the international community outside the Security Council for intervention in Syria,” considering that “as soon as the first 3 fighter planes fly over the areas controlled by the regime, it will fall.”
Khaddam noted that “delay in international intervention will lead to the escalation of extremism in Syria, and this matter does not only burn Syria alone but also burns the interests of all countries in the region.”
He considered it “impossible to establish an Alawite enclave in Syria because no citizen can accept dismantling the national fabric,” confirming that “this type of division failed in the twentieth century when the French established an Alawite state.”
