Syria's deputy leader quits to make way for new blood

Wednesday June 8, 2005

Brian Whitaker in Beirut

The most senior member of Syria's old guard, its 73-year-old vice-president, Abdel-Halim Khaddam, is to step down to make way for new blood, an official of the ruling Ba'ath party said yesterday.

Reports of Mr Khaddam's retirement came as members of the party gathered in Damascus for a conference that President Bashar al-Assad has heralded as a "great leap" towards reform.

"The man would like to open the way for the younger generation," Ahmed Haj Ali, a Ba'ath party official and former information ministry adviser, told the Associated Press.

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"It is his personal wish. He wants to give a positive example to others."

Mr Khaddam's retirement, if confirmed, may prove to be the most concrete sign of change from the Ba'athist conference, which delegates say is not the result of foreign pressure.

Nevertheless, it comes at a critical time for Syria, with the US pressing a long list of charges against the Damascus regime, which include aiding the insurgency in Iraq, supporting Hizbullah and Palestinian militant groups, and keeping intelligence agents in Lebanon contrary to UN security council resolution 1559.

The old guard are often regarded as an obstacle to change in Syria.

President Assad, who took over from his father, Hafez, five years ago, was initially too insecure to remove them but has consolidated his position.

Several prominent members of the old guard have already gone, including Mustafa Tlas, the former defence minister. As a further sign of change, President Assad has also appointed several non-Ba'athists as ministers.

Though he is well past retirement age, Mr Khaddam's position has been especially sensitive.

After the sudden death of Hafez al-Assad in 2000, he automatically became acting president but was persuaded to make way for the current president.

Amid of the succession crisis, he signed vital decrees promoting Mr Assad from colonel to lieutenant general, and appointing him commander in chief of the armed forces.

He also signed a constitutional amendment lowering the minimum age for the presidency to 34 years - which was Mr Assad's age at the time.

In return for this, Mr Khaddam stayed on as vice-president, though mainly in a ceremonial role, and President Assad halted a high-profile anti-corruption campaign that he had been directing against the regime's old guard.

Mr Khaddam was also important as the highest-ranking Sunni Muslim in a regime dominated by Syria's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

He was a friend and business associate of fellow Sunni Rafik Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister whose assassination last February has been widely blamed on Syria or its allies in Lebanon.

Mr Khaddam was the most senior Syrian official to visit Beirut for the funeral, though he did not attend the burial ceremony, apparently for security reasons.

Although officially described as an opportunity for free speech and self-criticism, the opening session of the conference on Monday appeared carefully orchestrated.

President Assad gave an unusually short 10-minute speech, which focused mainly on economic reform and stayed clear of political reform and foreign policy issues.