Damascus, Syria
A former Syrian vice president is calling on Syrians to boot out President Bashar al-Assad and his government. Abdel-Halim Khaddam, who resigned from his post last summer and lives in exile in Paris, said he supported the Damascus Declaration, an October agreement among opposition parties to work for “drastic and democratic change.” Khaddam also accused Assad of ordering the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a charge a U.N. team is investigating. “This regime cannot be reformed,” he told the pan-Arab paper Asharq al-Awsat, “so there is nothing left but to oust it.” For 30 years, Khaddam was a trusted aide of Assad’s late father, President Hafez al-Assad.
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