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Asharq Al-Awsat introduced Abdel Halim Khaddam’s memoirs, which it is publishing in chunks, by summing up the roles he had played before becoming vice president: governor of Hama, then of Quneitra, and then foreign minister. It thereby reminded us that the man had been an official- though of different ranks- between 1963 and 2005.
From his positions in the upper echelons of power, from deep within the regime’s core, he describes to us aspects of how the Assad regime governs Syria and how the rulers understood the issues, countries and factions they were dealing with.
Below are a few selected samples, which this column doesn’t have room for more of: