Conversion on the way out of Damascus

The Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite news channel published a full transcription of the interview given by Syria's former Vice-president 'Abd al-Halim Khaddam on December 30.

The regime's ex-number two asserted that the late former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri had been harshly threatened by Syrian president Bashar al-Asad a few months before being assassinated on February 14, 2005. Khaddam also expressed cutting criticism about Syria's current political trends, stating that the process of reforms will ultimately end up in a fiasco. The interview, which came as a bombshell, added a further blow to the already shaky image of the Syrian government. Following the latest allegations, the United Nations "International Independent Investigation Commission established pursuant to Security Council Resolution 1595 (2005)" (also known as the Mehlis Commission, after the name of Chief Prosecutor Detlev Mehlis) asked to interview Syrian President Bashar al-Asad and Foreign Minister Faruq ash-Shara'.
Translating from Al Arabiya:

Nasrat Hassan said that 'the Commission demanded an interview with al-Asad and ash-Shara' and two other Syrians, and is expecting a reply from the Syrian government', and added that 'the Commission wishes an additional meeting with Khaddam' possibly within a short period of time.

The Lebanese newspaper An-Nahar wrote that international reliable sources revealed that the International Investigation Commission will attempt to demand a meeting with Khaddam to hear from him, especially after the Commission realized that the content that has been mentioned with respect to the circumstances of al-Hariri's assassination and the events that led to it are consistent with what has been revealed by prosecutor Detlev Mehlis in his conclusions to the Security Council about the results that he reached in his report.

Khaddam's words drew substantially mixed reaction in the Arab media. Lebanese newspaper Ad-Diyar launched a frontal attack against Khaddam, describing him as a new "informant" of Detlev Mehlis and raising corruption charges against him with no less than these headings:

Syria's Judas seized 35 million dollars leaving accusations behind him.

Abu Jamal living in Paris mansions lectures about poverty in Syria.

London-based Al-Quds al-'arabi recalled Khaddam's controversial role in the Lebanese civil war in an article entitled "Mr Khaddam's bombs".
As-Safir's Husam 'Itani remembered Khaddam's tough stance against domestic political dissent in an article entitled "Inseparable Tracks", with a reference to a speech delivered by Syria's former Vice-president before an audience at the University of Damascus on February 18, 2001. Other observers remarked that Khaddam (who was considered an "ideologist", although it is complicated to define what the Ba'athist ideology exactly stands for) crucially contributed to crush the Muslim Brotherhood uprising in Hamah and how he suppressed any potential opposition in the country as he evoked the spectre of "the Algerian experience".

On the whole, you get the idea that some right things (in particular about the inner working of the regime, its corruption and mismanagement) were told by the wrong person with a dubious timing. Rime Allaf expands this concept in her very interesting post "Defection and high treason in Damascus". Some of the comments are quite insightful, too.