Le Novelle Observateur: Khaddam says $20 billion stolen in Lebanon and Syria by al-Assad friends

In the framework of the continued media campaign by the Syrian former vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam from his exile in Paris against the current Syrian government, he said in an interview with Le Novelle Observateur " magazine that more than $ 20 billion were stolen in Lebanon and Syria by persons close to the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Khaddam indicated the involvement of he Lebanese president and the Lebanese and Syrian security forces in the corruption in Lebanon.

Khaddam had also accused Bashar al-Assad that he ordered the murder of al-Rafiq Hariri. Syria has strongly denied it had played a role in the assassination of Hariri and other 22 in a large explosions in Beirut that took place on February 14, 2005.