Kuwaiti daily reports Syrian blacklist
On Thursday, Kuwaiti daily As-Seyassah reported the Syrian press promoted the disappearances of Muhammad Zuhair As-Saddiq and Fares Khashan were “only the beginning of the physical elimination of a blacklist containing 10 names that the Syrian regime intends to get rid of as soon as possible.”
Saddiq, the main witness to the assassination of five-time Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri in 2005, and Khashan, a journalist for the Lebanese daily Al-Mustaqbal, were two names on a list which the “Syria regime intends to liquidate,” the Kuwaiti daily reported “highly private security sources” as saying.
The sources said the statute also listed former Syrian Vice President Abed Al-Halim Khaddam, Lebanese Telecommunications Minister Marwan Hamadeh – who survived an attempt on his life in 2004, former Lebanese president and Kataeb President Amin Gemayel, Gemayel’s surviving son Sami Gemayel, Progressive Socialist Party head Walid Jumblatt, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea, Saad Hariri’s advisor Hani Hammoud and Defense Minister Elias Murr, who also survived an assassination attempt in 2005.
The sources said the list contained prominent figures who had become a “source of inconvenience” to the Syrian regime due to their anti-Syrian statements in the Arab media.