Syrian ex-vice president Khalim Haddam expelled from ruling Baath for his scorching attack on Bashar Assad over al Arabiya TV Friday, Dec. 30

He confirmed the UN report that found the Syrian president had threatened the murder former Lebanese PM Rafiq Hariri months before his assassination. Haddam, whom Bashar unseated after he succeeded his father as president, denounced the Syrian president for refusing to sack General Rustoum Ghazaleh, the former Syrian military intelligence in Lebanon,immediately after the assassination.
debkafile‘s Middle East sources note that Haddam insinuated in the interview that Assad had had pre-knowledge of the murder and could have prevented it. He clearly laid the crime at Ghazaleh’s door and made it clear that no part of Syrian intelligence is free to act without Assad’s authority. This veteran Syrian politician’s diatribe against Assad is unprecedented and shocked opinion in Damascus and the Arab world.