Khaddam harms Syria and Bishara relations, Syrian official

Syria has depicted Abdul-Halim Khaddam late statements to an Israeli newspaper as bids to hit the relation connecting Syria with the Arab intellectual Azmi Bishara, the official Syrian news agency SANA reported.

This comes following reported statements by the exiled Syrian vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam on that Bishara acted as a go between Israel and Syria during their negotiations in the 1990s.

SANA said "'Abdul-Halim Khaddam has recently made malevolent statements to an Israeli newspaper trying to hit the relations between Syria and Dr. Azmi Bishara,' an official source said Thursday."

It added "'We are not surprised by Khaddam to behave in such a way and through a suspicious Israeli newspaper after he has become satisfied with what he reached to, but he and those who like him have no right to assail one of the important figures of the pan-Arab thought like Dr. Azmi Bishara,' the source added."

"Dr. Bishara is known, for the enemy before the friend, for his brave stances and honorable defense of the Palestinian people and Arab Nation causes, the matter that exposed him to damage, investigation and trial even that Israel had issued a law that prohibits his travel to Syria in order to prevent Dr. Bishara from visiting it in the last years," the source mentioned, SANA reported.