Monday, January 16, 2006
Ex-Syrian VP Forms Government in Exile
A week ago I published a post about ex-Syrian VP Abdul-Halim Khaddam, who has relocated to Paris and made accusations that Syrian President Bashar Assad assassinated former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. I indicated that we need to be ware of Khaddam, that he obviously has political aspirations of his own, and any information he gives will be tainted by those aspirations.
In a new interview, Khaddam has indicated he is forming a government-in-exile, and that Assad’s regime will not last out the year. “His fall has begun. I don't believe his regime will survive this year. The internal pressure and the international pressure through the Hariri investigation are growing with each week." In the same interview, he backtracked a bit on the Hariri accusations, indicating that Assad “must have” ordered the assassination, indicating he has no direct knowledge that Assad did order the assassination.
Nothing new here, folks. A Middle Eastern politician looses a struggle for power, and then says all the right things to try to gain the support of a bigger military power, in this case the Western nations, hopefully ousting the present regime and winning back power for the politician. Political leaders in the Middle East have been doing this forever, and many times have been successful in drawing the US and other Western nations into conflicts where we don’t belong, such as Lebanon in 1983.
Don’t fall for it! I don’t see Assad loosing power in Syria, but if he would, do we really think we’ll get better with Khaddam? All we will do is further alienate the Muslim nations by involving ourselves in yet another potential crisis where we don’t belong. With interests already in Iraq and Iran, two powerhouse Middle Eastern countries, we are already spread thin; Syria is yet another huge Middle Eastern country and one where we don’t belong.
Let the situation play out naturally, and see where it takes us. Considering our present position in the region, this is the safest and smartest course of action at this time.
Posted by Scottage at 1:55 AM /
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