SYRIA: EX-DEPUTY PRESIDENT, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD IN ANTI-ASSAD APPEAL

Damascus, 18 April (AKI) - Syria's exiled former deputy president Abd al-Halim Khaddam in a letter signed together with the leader of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood - the first such joint appeal - has called on Syrians to stand up to the government of president Bashar al-Assad. Writing on the 60th anniversary of the withdrawal of French troops from Syria, Kaddam and the Muslim Brotherhood's general organiser, Ali Sadr al-Din al-Bayanuni, entitled their letter "Appeal of the [French] departure".

Since the departure of the French troops, "a few renegades have taken freedom away from the people, and they have misappropriated the people's will and their sovereignity," the letter said.

Syria needs a "new departure" the letter said in a reference to ending Assads's rule.

Khaddam, a veteran aide to the president's father, the late Hafez al-Assad who ruled Syria for 30 years, resigned as deputy-president in June 2005 and has been living in France since then.