Abdul Halim Khaddam ( pronunction (help·info) AHB-dl hah-LEEM kah-DAM[needs IPA]
</noinclude> (Arabic language: عبد الحليم خدام; born 15 September 1932) is a Syrian politician who was Vice President of Syria from 1984 to 2005. He was one of the few Sunni Muslims to make it to the top of the Alawite-dominated Syrian leadership. He was long known as a loyalist of Hafez Assad, and held a strong position within the Syrian government[1] until he resigned his positions and fled the country in 2005 in protest against certain policies of Hafez's son and successor, Bashar Assad.
Early life and education[]
Abdul Halim Khaddam was born on 15 September 1932 in Baniyas, Syria.[2] His family was Sunni Muslim with a middle-class origin,[3] and his father was a respected lawyer.[4] Khaddam obtained his elementary and secondary education in Baniyas and then studied law at Damascus University.[3]
Career[]
Khaddam became a member of the Baath Party when he was just 17 years old.[3] He began his political career as governor of Quneitra after the party came to power in 1963.[3] Then he was appointed governor of Hama and Damascus.[3] His first government portfolio was economy and trade minister in the cabinet formed by then head of Syria, Nureddin al Attasi, in 1969.[3] Then he was named as an advisor to Hafez Assad.[5] He later served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister from 1970 to 1984.[2] On 7 January 1976, Khaddam argued that Lebanon was part of Syria.[6] During his visit to Tehran in August 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, he publicly stated that the Syrian regime backed the revolution before and after the revolutionary process.[7]
He then served as Vice President from 11 March 1984 to 2005.[8][9] He was responsible for political and foreign affairs as Vice President.[10] Khaddam was also chief mediator during the Lebanon Civil War.[11]
After the death of Hafez Assad in 2000, a 9-member committee was founded, which was headed by Khaddam, to oversee the transition period.[12] He was appointed by this committee as interim President of Syria on 10 June and he was in office until 17 July 2000 when Bashar Assad was elected as the new president.[2] At the time, there were rumours in Damascus that Khaddam would try to seize power.
Assassination attempts[]
Khaddam was slightly injured in an attack in Damascus in December 1976.[13] In October 1977, Khaddam again survived an assassination attempt in Abu Dhabi. However, the Deputy Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates, Seif bin Ghobash, was killed in the attack. The Syrian authorities argued that it had been planned and carried out by Iraq.[5] Khaddam reported that Rifat Assad also tried to kill him.[14]
Alliances[]
Khaddam was one of the senior officials in Syria who was close to Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.[15][16] Hariri subsidised Khaddam's children's education.[14]
Resignation[]
As the new President, Bashar Assad, strengthened his grip on the Baathist bureaucracy, Khaddam, and other members of the "old guard" of the government, gradually lost influence. He announced his resignation on 5 June 2005 during the Baath Party conference and went to France with his family.[17] That made him one of the last influential members of the "old guard" to leave the top tier of the government. The announcement came at a point when his political wings had already been clipped, but still the most powerful Sunni member in an Alawi government. After resigning, he relocated to Paris ostensibly to write his memoirs.[18]
Defection and exile[]
On 30 December 2005, Khaddam fled Syria.[19] In an interview with Al Arabiya on the same day, Khaddam denounced Assad's many "political blunders" in dealing with Lebanon. He especially attacked Rustum Ghazali, former head of Syrian operations in Lebanon, but defended his predecessor, Ghazi Kanaan, Syria's interior minister. Khaddam also said that former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, to whom Khaddam was considered close, "received many threats" from Syria's President Bashar al-Assad.[20]
The Syrian parliament responded the next day by voting to bring treason charges against him, and the Baath Party expelled him. Following the Khaddam interview, the UN Commission headed by Detlev Mehlis investigating the Hariri murder said it had asked the Syrian authorities to question Bashar Assad and Syria's Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa. He met with the UN investigators searching for the Hariri assassination in Paris in January 2006.[21] His accusations against Assad and his inner circle regarding the Hariri assassination also grew more explicit: Khaddam said he believed that Assad ordered Hariri's assassination.
On 14 January 2006, Khaddam announced that he was forming a "government in exile", predicting the end of Assad's government by the end of 2006. Khaddam is the highest ranking Syrian official to have publicly cut his ties with the Syrian government, with the possible exception of Rifaat al-Assad. Khaddam formed the opposition group National Salvation Front in Syria (NSF) in 2006 which supports political transition in Syria.[2] The NSF had its last meeting on 16 September 2007 in Berlin, where some 140 opposition figures attended. On 16 February 2008, Khaddam accused the Syrian government of assassinating a top Hezbollah fugitive, Imad Mughniyeh, "for Israel's sake."[22]
Trial[]
Khaddam was tried in absentia by a military court in Damascus and sentenced to hard labour for life and to be stripped of his civil rights and prevented from residing in Damascus or Tartus, his native town, in August 2008.[23] The reason for the verdict was "slandering the Syrian leadership and lying before an international tribunal regarding the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri."[23]
Role in the Syrian Civil War[]
Khaddam is considered an opposition leader to the current Syrian government by the United States and the EU. In an interview on Israel's channel 2 TV, Khaddam acknowledged that he received money and help from the US and the EU in order to overthrow the Syrian government.[24]
Personal life[]
Khaddam is married to Najat Marqabi, who is a member of a rich and well-known Baniyas family. She is an Alawi.[25] They have three sons and one daughter.[3] One of his granddaughters is married to Rafik Hariri's son.[26] Khaddam is interested in reading the political works and hunting.[3]
References[]
- ↑ "Profile: Abdul Halim Khaddam". 31 December 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4572362.stm. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Bowen, Andrew (17 September 2012). "Syria's Future and Iran's Great Game". The Majalla. http://www.majalla.com/eng/2012/09/article55234032. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 "Profile: Abdel Halim Khaddam". Lebanon Wire. 7 June 2005. http://www.lebanonwire.com/0605/05060702RR.asp. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ Drysdale, Alasdair (January 1981). . "The Syrian Political Elite, 1966–1976: A Spatial and Social Analysis". pp. 3–30. Digital object identifier:10.1080/00263208108700455. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4282814 .. Retrieved 11 March 2013.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Syrian blames Iraq for terrorist attack". Abu Dhabi. 26 October 1977. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=9L0yAAAAIBAJ&sjid=Be4FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1663,9094682&dq=abdul+halim+khaddam&hl=en. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ "Syrian chronicles 1973–1990". Tayyar. http://www.tayyar.org/NR/rdonlyres/D8726CC4-B415-4DFF-A497-81363ABBC490/0/SyrianChronicles021214_US.htm. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
- ↑ Badran, Tony (22 June 2010). "Syriana". Tablet. http://www.tabletmag.com/jewish-news-and-politics/36751/syriana. Retrieved 4 August 2013.
- ↑ "Abdel-Halim Khaddam: "I'm not going to head Syria’s transitional government"". 10 September 2012. http://english.ruvr.ru/2012_09_10/Abdel-Halim-khaddam-Im-not-going-to-head-Syria-s-transitional-government/. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ "Syria Primer". Virtual Information Center. 24 April 2003. http://merln.ndu.edu/merln/mipal/SyriaPrimer24apr03.pdf. Retrieved 2 March 2013.
- ↑ "Syria's Assad forms new cabinet". Damascus. 12 March 1984. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=BKIcAAAAIBAJ&sjid=m2gEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4620,2593921&dq=abdul+halim+khaddam&hl=en. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ "Khaddam due in Beirut soon". Beirut. 15 June 1984. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=e5EjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=taUFAAAAIBAJ&pg=4024,1856748&dq=abdul+halim+khaddam&hl=en. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ "Bashar Aims to Consolidate Power in the Short-Term and to Open up Gradually". 19 June 2000. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Syria%3a+Bashar+Aims+To+Consolidate+Power+In+The+Short-Term+%26+To+Open...-a073738730. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
- ↑ "Syrian minister wounded in attack". Damascus. 2 December 1976. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ZVc0AAAAIBAJ&sjid=CcwFAAAAIBAJ&pg=795,497474&dq=abdul+halim+khaddam&hl=en. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 Glass, Charles (4 August 2005). "An Assassin's Land". http://www.charlesglass.net/archives/2005/08/an_assassinas_l.html. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
- ↑ William Harris (19 July 2012). Lebanon: A History, 600–2011. Oxford University Press. pp. 262. ISBN 978-0-19-518111-1. http://books.google.com/books?id=jY4ImTGnamUC&pg=PA262. Retrieved 10 March 2013.
- ↑ Mugraby, Mohammad (July 2008). "The Syndrome of One-Time Exceptions and the Drive to Establish the Proposed Hariri Court". pp. 171–193. Digital object identifier:10.1080/13629390802127513. http://www.cggl.org/publicdocs/20080707.pdf. Retrieved 15 March 2013.
- ↑ "Syria party kicks out 'traitor'". 1 January 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4573894.stm. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
- ↑ Moubayed, Sami (5–11 January 2006). "The fox speaks". http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/776/re4.htm. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
- ↑ Mallat, Chibli. Lebanon's Cedar Revolution An essay on non-violence and justice. Mallat. pp. 125. http://mallat.com/books/Appendix1%20and%202.pdf.
- ↑ Stern, Yoav (30 December 2005). "Former Syrian VP says Assad was involved in Hariri's death". http://www.haaretz.com/news/former-syrian-vp-says-assad-was-involved-in-hariri-s-death-1.177971. Retrieved 30 November 2012.
- ↑ "Khaddam meets UN panel". Paris. 8 January 2006. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=132081. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ "Khaddam Accuses Syria of Killing Mughniyeh". 16 February 2008. http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&07B7D1A92A0EC17BC22573F10059D42D. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 "Khaddam is sentenced to hard labour for life". Damascus. 31 August 2008. http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=227765. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
- ↑ "Khaddam acknowledges U.S. and E.U. help in overthrow of Syrian Regime". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COqBQYcrd9Q.
- ↑ "Syria-The Power Elite". http://www.mongabay.com/history/syria/syria-the_power_elite.html. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
- ↑ Bar, Shmuel (2006). "Bashar's Syria: The Regime and its Strategic Worldview". http://www.herzliyaconference.org/_Uploads/2590Bashars.pdf. Retrieved 12 March 2013.
External links[]
Wikisource has original works written by or about: |
- Hariri threatened by Syria head, BBC News, 30 December 2005
- UN asks to meet Syrian president, BBC News, 2 January 2006
- Former Syrian VP set to form government in exile, Haaretz, 15 January 2006
The original article can be found at Abdul Halim Khaddam and the edit history here.