Abdel Halim Khaddam, the former Syrian Vice President, has died this morning in France at the age of 88 years, according to a Syrian source living in exile and close to Khaddam.
Salah Ayyash added that Khaddam died at 5 am (3 GMT) after suffering a heart attack.
Khaddam worked for 30 years in the Syrian state under late President Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar, who became president in 2000.
Khaddam became a member of the Baath Party when he was just 17 years old. He began his political career as governor of Quneitra after the party came to power in 1963. Then he was appointed governor of Hama and Damascus.
His first government portfolio was economy and trade minister in the cabinet formed by then head of Syria, Nureddin al Attasi, in 1969, making him the youngest minister in Syrian political history. Then he was named as an advisor to Hafez Assad.
He later served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Deputy Prime Minister from 1970 to 1984. On 7 January 1976, Khaddam argued that Lebanon was part of Syria.
During his visit to Tehran in August 1979 following the Iranian Revolution, he publicly stated that the Syrian government backed the revolution before and after the revolutionary process.
He then served as Vice President from 11 March 1984 to 2005. He was responsible for political and foreign affairs as Vice President. Khaddam was also chief mediator during the Lebanon Civil War, thus giving him the unofficial titles of "High Commissioner" or "Godfather" of Lebanon.
After the death of Hafez Assad in 2000, a 9-member committee was founded, which was headed by Khaddam, to oversee the transition period.
He was appointed by this committee as interim President of Syria on 10 June and he was in office until 17 July 2000 when Bashar Assad was elected as the new president. At the time, there were rumours in Damascus that Khaddam would try to seize power, as he was the constitutional successor to the presidency.
Khaddam had become a prominent opponent of the rule of President Bashar al-Assad after his escape to Paris in 2005.
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