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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: January 2, 2006 |
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Syria's ruling Baath Party stripped former Vice President Abdul-Halim Khaddam of membership and joined parliament in demanding he be tried for high treason, the official news agency SANA reported Sunday.
On Friday, Khaddam said in a television interview from Paris that Syrian President Bashar Assad had threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri months before he was assassinated in a Feb. 14 truck bombing.
Khaddam, whose allegations provoked an outcry in official Syrian circles, told the pan-Arab satellite television channel Al-Arabiya that Assad warned Hariri in August 2004 against pushing for a new president in Lebanon. Assad planned to extend the term of President Emile Lahoud, a pro-Syrian whom Hariri was known to oppose.
Syria's push for the three-year extension of the staunchly pro-Syrian Lahoud's presidency is September 2004 - which required a constitutional amendment - was considered responsible for the crisis in Lebanese-Syrian relations that led to Hariri's assassination and the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon in April after nearly three decades.
In the extensive television interview, Khaddam's first since he left Syria several months ago, the former leader quoted the Syrian president as telling Hariri: "You want to bring a (new) president in Lebanon ... I will not allow that. I will crush whoever attempts to overturn our decision."
The decision to strip Khaddam of party membership was announced in a statement issued by the Baath Party's National Leadership, the country's highest decision-making authority and headed by Assad.
On Saturday, parliament passed a binding measure that Khaddam be tried for high treason, a charge that is reserved for high officials and carries the death penalty. The measure was sent to the Justice Ministry so it could prepare a case against Khaddam. |
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