Aawn criticizes Khaddam, questioning his past in Lebanon

The Lebanese parliamentarian and Christian leader Michel Aawn accused the former Syrian vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam, who moved to the opposition side in France, of being responsible for many acts of assassination in Lebanon.

In a televised interview, Aawn said "doubtless, he is directly responsible. What does it mean that a person disappears, a president of a republic following a meeting between him and Khaddam," in remarks to the assassination of the former Lebanese President Rene Muaawad in November 1989.

Aawn said that Khaddam was the engineer of the Syrian hegemony on Lebanon over three decades, and that he had been for a long time responsible for the Lebanese file in the Syrian government, when drastic events took place parallel to the assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri, as he alleged.

Aawn said "Acts of assassinations took place including the assassination of Presidents Bashir al-Gemayel, and Rene Muaawad, the Republic Mufti Sheikh Hassan Khaled, parliamentarian Nazem al-Qadiri and the Druze leader Kamal Junblat.

He hoped that the Syrian official who moved to the opposition would remember and "tell us how these events that took place.. about corruption in Lebanon, while he was in charge of the Lebanese rule."