Exiled former Syrian Vice President Abdel-Halim Khaddam holds a news conference on the political situation in Syria, in Brussels, Belgium, April 7, 2011. Photo: Reuters / Thierry Roge / File.

Abdul-Halim Khaddam, a former Syrian vice president who became a prominent opponent of President Bashar al-Assad’s rule after fleeing to Paris in 2005, died on Tuesday in France, Salah Ayach, a Syrian exile who was close to him, said. He was 88.

Khaddam died at 5 a.m. (0300 GMT) of a heart attack, Ayach said.

Khaddam had served for 30 years in the Syrian state under the late President Hafez al-Assad and his son, Bashar, who became president in 2000.