Ex-VP wants Syria government toppled: paper

DUBAI (Reuters) - A former Syrian vice president said he was seeking to topple the government of President Bashar al-Assad through a popular uprising, according to an interview published in a leading Arabic newspaper on Friday.

bdel-Halim Khaddam told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper from his home in Paris that he was rallying Syrian opposition parties to "create the right atmosphere for the Syrian people to topple the regime".

"This regime cannot be reformed, so there is nothing left but to oust it," he said in an interview. "The Syrian people will be the ones to oust it."

Khaddam's remarks were the latest salvo in an unprecedented verbal attack against Assad, who is under intense international pressure to cooperate with a U.N. probe into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.

In the newspaper interview, Khaddam said he was not seeking to become president, but admitted to having political aspirations. "I want to save the country," he said.

Asked if he would ask foreign governments for help to end Assad's rule, Khaddam said: "I did not contact anybody because change has to come from within. If the main vector for change is external, then the interests of the country are harmed."

Last week, Khaddam accused Assad of being an authoritarian ruler of a corrupt government and told Al Arabiya television that Assad had threatened Hariri a few months before he was assassinated in a February 14 truck bombing in Beirut.

Syrian lawmakers promptly accused him of treason for criticizing the president and on Thursday, the government froze the assets of Khaddam and his family.