Syria's Assad suspends interior minister Ghazi Kanaan from office

The suffocating international pressure against the Syrian regime seems to have finally succeeded in inciting President Assad to suspend Syria's Interior Minister Ghazi Kannnan for his duties, Kuwaiti daily Alseyassah reported.

Quoting informed sources, the paper said Assad has frozen Monday the authorities of Brigadier General Ghazi Kanaan who was "behind many violations and the basic activator of the excesses committed by Brigadier General Ruston Ghazaleh, Syria's former intelligence chief in Lebanon".

The sources confirmed that President Assad has finally understood that Kanaan and Ghazaleh were "two faces of the same rotten currency."

They also said that Assad realized that the two men were behind the pressure exerted to extend President Lahoud's term in office, as well as the relentless campaign against Lebanon's slain prime minister Rafic Hariri, which lead to his assassination and to unleashing the quake that strongly shook the very seat of the Syrian presidency, the paper added.

It is generally believed in Damascus that suspending Kannan from his duties represents a strong blow to the security and intelligence system surrounding President Assad, and signifies a good beginning toward a real change in the domestic situation, in addition to sending positive signals to Washington, the paper said.

The sources were further quoted by the Kuwaiti daily as saying that the Syrian President has finally caught the meaning of freezing Ghazi Kanaan and Rustom Ghazlai's assets, without applying the same measure to other Syrian officials.

The US Treasury Department earlier clarified in its decision to freeze Kanaan's assets that  Kanaan was the one who run the corruption process in Lebanon, and that he was the primary beneficiary from the continuation of Syria's hegemony over Lebanon, and the rule of the Syrian-controlled Security agencies, Alseyassah added.

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