A former Syrian vice president disclosed that Lebanon's Parliament speaker, in coordination with Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa, had hampered Spanish mediation efforts to halt the extension of President Emile Lahoud's mandate. In remarks published Friday in the London-based As-Sharq al-Awsat, Abdel-Halim Khaddam revealed that Spain, upon Syrian request, undertook mediation efforts to help stop the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 on condition that Syria dropped plans to extend Lahoud's term. "Assad asked Sharaa to contact Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos" on the issue, Khaddam told the pan-Arab daily from his residence in Paris. Following talks between Moratinos, President Jacques Chirac, Premier Tony Blair, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President George W. Bush, "there was an agreement to abandon the resolution on condition that the head of the Lebanese Parliament cancels a call for a parliamentary session," that would vote for the extension, Sharaa told the newspaper. "When Moratinos informed Sharaa of the deal, the latter asked that the Spanish foreign minister convey the request directly to [Speaker Nabih] Berri. And when he did [Berri] replied: 'Lebanon is a sovereign country and Syria cannot impose anything on us,'" Khaddam said. "Two hours after Berri's response the Security Council voted in favor of the resolution," Khaddam said. A day later, on September 3, Lebanon's Parliament voted to give Lahoud three more years in office, in a defiant response to Resolution 1559.
Khaddam said Assad's decisions had "brought considerable damage to Syria." These, he said, led to the adoption of 1559, the murder of Hariri, the "humiliating pullout" of Syrian forces, a split in relations with Lebanon and international isolation. Khaddam openly advocated Assad's overthrow. "This regime cannot be reformed. The only alternative is to overthrow it," he told As-Sharq al-Awsat. "Syria is in danger. She is isolated as a result of the regimes policies, and national unity is threatened. When the country is in danger, it is necessary to reinforce national unity and ... the domestic front."