Khaddam Reveals a Historic Fact That Explains Lebanon's 'Former' Scapegoat Status

Former Syrian vice-president Abdul-Halim Khaddam, opened pandora's box of Syrian regime's secrets after fleeing the country fearing Bashar Assad's wrath. One of the few Sunnis who held a strong position in the Hafez Al-Assad regime for more than 35 years, Khaddam resigned from his office and left to Paris to form an opposition party and team up with the Muslim Brotherhood on a common goal to overthrow the current Assad regime.

In an interview last week with journalist Ali Hamade on Future TV, Khaddam who was one of the major architect of the plot to widen sectarian differences in Lebanon and to sacrifice the PLO in Southern Lebanon, spoke as if he was the bearer of unity to the Lebanese people. However some of the points he revealed where worthy of pause. Khaddam said:

• After the October 1973 War Hafez Al-Assad decided not to enter into what Khaddam called a "traditional war" with Israel anymore. Assad gave his orders to the generals in Golan not to fire a single bullet in the direction of Israel and keep the status-quo in the occupied Syrian land.
• Assad decided to make Israel "bleed" in Southern Lebanon and to strengthen and manipulate the already existing Lebanese and Palestinian resistance there to serve his regime's agenda.
• After the humiliating defeat of the Arabs in October 73, Hafez Al-Assad knew that any action against Israel in Golan will be answered by a full blown attack on Damascus by the Israeli Airforce, an action that the Syrian army was ill equipped to respond to. Assad used Lebanon as a proxy battleground to keep his 'Arab resistance' credentials while his Syrian land was occupied.
• Without Egypt, Syria cannot engage in a war against Israel, an Arab strategic formula that Assad realized early on in his ascent to power.
• Journalist Ali Hamade asked Khaddam why Syria did not interfere when Lebanon's infrastructure was being destroyed by Israel especially that Syria and Lebanon are bound by a pact of special relations according to the 1989 Taif accord, including a mutual defense agreement? Khaddam answered that the Syrian regime has made the decision not to fight with Israel, even though Bashar's rhetoric never stopped.
• To a question about the status of Syria in the Arab world as the face of the resistance especially in the Arab street, Khaddam said "how can you say Syria is the face of the resistance and the Syrian people are deprived of their basic freedoms, no constitution, no true representation in the government and ruled by one family for more than 40 years?" He added that the kurds historically had the same rights as Arabs in Syria, however now they are not even granted Syrian Identity cards. It is still illegal for a Syrian to belong to the Muslim Brotherhood group for which one can be prosecuted and put in prison.

Again, Khaddam's hands are not clean of Syrian and Lebanese blood. No doubt he was a co-conspirator in all the plots executed against the Palestinians and the Lebanese people. However the treasure trove of information that he is providing about the inner workings of the Assad clan and their insidious role in Lebanon's history of instability, remains invaluable.