A file photo of Khaddam (L) shaking hands with Bashar Al-Assad. (Reuters)

By Ahmed Fathy, IOL Staff

CAIRO , December 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - The bombshell dropped by former  Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam on a possible Syrian role in the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri has sent seismic waves in Damascus and would tighten the noose around the Arab country, experts agreed on Saturday, December 31.

“Khaddam’s testimony at this critical juncture in Syrian history has, in effect, sent shock waves across the country’s political landscape and ushered in grave consequences,” Syrian opposition writer Akram Al-Beni told IslamOnline.net.

Speaking from Paris, where he has lived since resigning as vice-president in June, Khaddam said in an exclusive interview with Al-Arabiya news channel on Friday, December 30, that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad threatened  Hariri just months before his murder.

He said the Syrian intelligence services could not have carried out such an operation without Assad being informed.

Khaddam also blamed Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and other Lebanese officials for “inciting” Assad against Hariri, who was once a staunch ally of Damascus but who backed a 2004 UN resolution that called for foreign troops to quit Lebanon .

The murder of Hariri, a billionaire businessman and five-time prime minister, plunged Lebanon into political turmoil and heightened international pressure on Syria to end its 29-year military presence in its smaller neighbor.

Regime Collapse

Beni said Khaddam’s bombshell will expedite the collapse of the regime in Syria .

Beni said Khaddam’s bombshell will expedite the collapse of the regime in Syria as it was dropped by one of the old guards and a veteran member of the ruling Baath party.

The Syrian analyst said the testimony will cast a harsh light on the “wrong-headed” policies of the Syrian regime in Lebanon and could pave the way for more revelations from senior Syrian officials in the days to come.

Ali Sadrudin Al-Bayouni, the head of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria , saw eye to eye with Beni that Khaddam’s stance could force a regime change in Syria and turn it into a democratic country.

“Khaddam’s testimony will break up the power monopoly in Syria ,” he said.

On the international probe into the February 14 murder of Hariri, Beni said Khaddam’s testimony will definitely give impetus to the role of the UN investigation commission.

“This testimony refutes previous ones, which discredited the interim report of former judge Detlev Mehlis and acquitted Syria from the killing,” he said.

Beni was referring to Hosam Taher Hosam, a key Syrian witness in the report, who has recanted his testimony and accused Lebanese officials of threats, bribery and torture to induce him to testify falsely against Syria .

Lebanese opposition Druze leader Walid Jumblatt agreed.

“This testimony gives credit indeed to the UN probe into the grisly murder of Hariri,” Jumblatt told Lebanon ’s Al-Mostakbal newspaper on Saturday.

In his interview, Khaddam would not speculate on who had ordered Hariri's murder, saying “we must wait” for the final results of a UN investigation that has already implicated senior Syrian officials.

In an October interim report, Mehlis implicated senior Syrian officials and their Lebanese allies in the plot to kill Hariri.

After the report, the Security Council warned Syria it had to cooperate fully with the UN team or face further action that could lead to sanctions.

Syria has denied the accusations and called the Mehlis report politically motivated.

Treason

Abrash said he had been bombarded with phone calls from Syrians demanding that Khaddam be arrested by Interpol.

Meanwhile, Syrian lawmakers called on Saturday for Khaddam to be tried for treason and corruption.

“I ask the Syrian leadership to try him ... for humiliating 10 million Syrians when he said half of the Syrian people are eating from the garbage,” legislator Umeima Faddoul told an emergency session of Syria parliament.

“I tell him, those who eat from the garbage are traitors like you ... Treason is the darkest shade of black,” Reuters quoted her as saying.

Legislator after legislator stood up in parliament to accuse Khaddam of corruption and treason.

“His comments last night constitute a criminal offence that reaches the level of treason and we demand he be put to trial before the Syrian security high court,” said one lawmaker.

Syria 's parliamentary speaker Mahmoud Al-Abrash said he had been bombarded with phone calls from Syrians demanding that Khaddam be arrested by Interpol.