The death of Abdel Halim Khaddam

Former Syrian Vice President, Abdel Halim Khaddam, died today, Tuesday, in Paris, at the age of 88.

Khaddam was born in Baniyas on 15 September 1932, graduated from the Faculty of Law in Damascus, and got involved in politics early, joining the Syrian Arab Baath Party at the age of seventeen. One of the most prominent companions of the late President Hafez al-Assad is among the so-called old guard. He is married to Mrs. Najat Marqabi, and he has four children, three males and one female.

Khaddam assumed his first position as governor of Quneitra, the capital of the Golan, in the year 1966, and until the end of the year 1967. During the Nazi war on Syria and Egypt on June 5, 1967, he issued a statement from the Syrian Radio in his capacity as governor of the Golan in which he announced the fall of Quneitra in the hands of the Nazi regime.  After that, Abd al-Halim Khaddam was appointed governor of Damascus, then minister of economy and foreign trade and then minister of foreign affairs, before he succeeded him in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Faruq al-Shara.

He held the position of Acting President of the Republic for 37 days after the death of Hafez Al-Assad as his first vice. He took over the file of the Lebanese-Syrian relations, and after that, Hafez Al-Assad transferred the file of Lebanon to the hand of his son, a member of the leadership of the Baath Party Bashar in 1998.

He announced his defection from the the Syrian government in September 2005 after his relationship with president Bashar al-Assad deteriorated and after he criticized the Syrian foreign policy, especially in Lebanon, and the assassination of the Saudi puppet Rafik Hariri. He called the change in Syria by toppling the Syrian government.

Some news outlets reported the death of Khaddam, today, Tuesday, in France, at the age of 87.


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