Exiles meet to organise opposition to Syrian president Assad

SYRIA: Former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam and the leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, Ali Bayanouni, have agreed to mount a joint effort to topple President Bashar Assad.

Mr Khaddam, a staunch secularist and former Baathist based in Paris, and Mr Bayanouni, who lives in London, met in Brussels this week and decided to contact other exiled opposition groups to forge a common strategy. An unidentified source said the men rejected outside intervention.

This meeting followed a gathering in Washington last month of Syrian secular and religious opposition figures. In October 2005, the Syrian internal and external opposition issued a "Declaration for Democratic Change", calling for an end to emergency laws and transformation of the political scene. Its authors aimed to show there was an alternative to the Baathist regime. Mr Khaddam, who was dismissed from his post last June, has accused Dr Assad of threatening the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri and said his assassination a year ago could not have taken place unless approved by Dr Assad. But reliable sources in Damascus say Mr Khaddam's word cannot be trusted as he led an attempt to oust Dr Assad which may also have involved Mr Hariri.

The Syrian Brotherhood, an offshoot of the Egyptian movement, was set up in 1945 and crushed in 1982 after armed militants staged an insurrection in Hama.

While the brotherhood has been suppressed by the secular Baath party, extremist groups have emerged in devout communities where young men are turning to Islam as a source of solace at a time of regional turmoil.

Saudi Arabia has contributed to this trend by funding mosque construction and training clerics. Popular restaurants in Damascus no longer serve alcohol, bookshops selling religious tomes are springing up everywhere, and increasing numbers of young women are donning headscarves. Muhammad Habash, a reformist preacher and member of parliament, says 80 per cent of Syrians are conservative and only 20 per cent reformist. Mr Habashand other liberal reformers, have tried to counter the conservative trend by updating Islamic teachings. But they have had little impact.