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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (154148)	1/8/2006 4:07:46 PM
From: D. Long	Respond to of 793927

I don't think Assad will see the end of the Bush Presidency in power in Damascus. CNN: Syria ex-VP sees U.N. investigator Saturday, January 7, 2006; Posted: 9:42 a.m. EST (14:42 GMT) PARIS, France (CNN) -- Former Syrian vice president Abdel-Halim Khaddam has met with United Nations investigators probing the February bombing death of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a Khaddam aide confirmed to CNN Saturday. The meeting took place Friday night in Paris, the aide said. While no details of what was discussed were released, Khaddam said he had answered all of the questions the investigators asked. Khaddam told CNN earlier this week that although he is in exile in Paris, he plans to work to bring down the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and expressed hope that Syrian people "will free themselves of this corrupt regime shortly." Khaddam resigned as al-Assad's vice president in June over what he said were differences on both international and domestic affairs. Al-Assad took office in 2000 after the death of his father. Khaddam said he had hoped he would institute political and economic reforms, "but the situation only became worse." He left the country after resigning. In December, Khaddam told the Arabic-language network Al-Arabiya that Al-Assad made direct personal threats to Hariri, who had become a critic of Syria's military occupation of Lebanon, a few months before Hariri's killing in a Beirut car bombing, and that Hariri's slaying came as a result of al-Assad's push for an extension of longtime ally Emile Lahoud's term as president of Lebanon. The death touched off protests that eventually led to Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon. Despite the fact a U.N. inquiry into Hariri's death has focused on senior Syrian figures, Syrian officials have denied any involvement in his slaying. Syrian lawmakers allied with al-Assad have branded Khaddam a traitor. Earlier this week, U.N. investigators asked to interview al-Assad and Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, an investigators' spokesperson said. CNN Correspondent Paula Newton contributed to this report