Balanced News Blog

DEBKAfile’s intelligence and counter-terror sources report that Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal arrived in Damascus first thing Sunday morning Jan 8 with an royal order for President Bashar Assad to present himself without delay to King Abdullah in Jeddah. The Saudis were racing against time to put Assad on the carpet before the onset of the hajj later that day. From Jeddah, the Syrian president flew to Sharm el-Sheikh where he was severely rapped by Hosni Mubarak.

The day before, Damascus informed the UN team investigating the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister last February that the president would not surrender to questioning. King Abdullah decided to give Assad a last chance to save himself and his regime.

This week, disaffected former Syrian vice president Abdul Khalim Haddam called for a popular uprising to oust president Assad, whom he called a traitor. Speaking to the BBC from Paris, where he lives under French intelligence protection, Haddam said:

“Public opinion is very frustrated” and “There is an opposition in Syria which will find its way to leading the people to overthrow him.”

Haddam said the Syrian president should go to prison for his involvement in Hariri’s assassination. He has set up a headquarters at the Georges V Hotel in Paris for an operation to oust the Assad regime. A French security guard detail is posted there by presidential decree.

Source: DEBKAfile.