MARBELLA, Spain (AP) – His resemblance to his older brother, Syria’s late President Hafez Assad is astounding. As a behind-the-scenes strongman and head of an elite military unit, he has been linked to a brutal repression of Islamic militants that reportedly left thousands dead.

Now, Rifaat Assad, who went into exile after a failed coup attempt in the mid-1980s, told The Associated Press that he wants to return home to remove the dictatorial regime led by his nephew and help bring democracy and economic prosperity – even though he claims he risks assassination.

“I have nothing but love for my nephew,” he said during a more than four-hour interview Friday at his office in Marbella in southern Spain. “But I have condemned the way he rules.”

The Syrian regime is under relentless U.S. pressure, with accusations that it is either aiding or not stopping foreign fighters from crossing its borders into Iraq.

“I noticed the country is being threatened from within and without,” Assad said, seated at his desk with a huge Syrian flag behind him. “The country doesn’t enjoy stability.”

“It’s America’s right to defend its interests as it is natural for Syria to defend its interests. The affair must be resolved in a regional reconciliation,” said Assad, whose country was a close ally of the former Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Assad, who had difficulty hearing well, insisted that he is not seeking to replace his 39-year-old nephew, who inherited the presidency from his late father five years ago. But his return would almost inevitably put more pressure on the Syrian leader, whom the U.S. is already pushing for serious change.

Rifaat Assad, 67, said that he wants to lead a peaceful movement for change in Syria.

He also said Syrians may be turning to Muslim fundamentalism because of the pressure, adding “that’s what made me decide to go back.”

He said Syria is being run by the police and the secret service who are stronger than the president. Bashar Assad “has left the country without leadership… No one knows who rules Syria,” the former strongman said.

Assad indicated that he may be willing to meet with officials in the Bush administration to “benefit the American and Syrian people,” although he said he has not been approached by any U.S. official.

Former CIA Middle East specialist Martha Kessler scoffed at the idea of Rifaat Assad trying to portray himself to the West as “Syria’s Chalabi,” referring to Ahmad Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile who got U.S. support in his campaign against Saddam Hussein before falling out of favor with Washington and becoming a deputy prime minister in Iraq.

“If anybody’s fallen for it, they’re in big trouble,” Kessler said, adding that Rifaat Assad was linked to atrocities in Syria and may no longer have much support there because he has been away so long and because his brother cracked down on his allies.

Human rights groups have accused the former strongman of leading crack army units in an assault that crushed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood in the northern Syrian city of Hama. The death toll reportedly came to more than 20,000, though it was never officially disclosed.

“There is credible evidence linking Rifaat Assad to atrocities when he was a paramilitary commander in Syria,” said Reed Brody, legal counsel for Human Rights Watch. “Rather than becoming a political leader, Rifaat Assad should be investigated.”

Rifaat Assad denied the accusations, saying he had no idea how many were killed in the Hama crackdown, but said most of the dead were killed by Muslim Brotherhood forces. Others were killed by security forces defending themselves, he said.

“I never entered Hama,” Assad said, adding that he was in the politburo leadership of the ruling Baath Party at the time and had no security responsibilities.

His 32-year-old son – one of his 16 children from different wives – attended the interview in Assad’s expansive office which is one floor below his seaside residence. The family owns a Japanese restaurant by the Mediterranean, a short walk away from his office, as well as a hotel.

Rifaat Assad has spoken about returning before, but has not gone home. When his brother died, he claimed he should be Syria’s next leader, but Syria’s Baath party, the Assad clan and the all-important military closed ranks around Bashar Assad and Rifaat reportedly was threatened with arrest if he tried to enter his homeland.

But he may have been emboldened by a perception that Bashar Assad has been weakened in Syria by the humiliation of having to give into U.S. pressure and withdraw troops from Lebanon after massive protests sparked by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Some hard-liners among the long-privileged ruling Alawites, the Islamic sect to which the Assads belong, are beginning to grumble privately that Bashar Assad is too weak. They see Bashar Assad’s decision to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon as capitulation, and may hope Rifaat Assad would be able to keep them in their privileged positions and satisfy the Americans at the same time.

Rifaat Assad, who spoke slowly and punctuated many of his points with a nervous laugh, said he had never supported Syrian meddling in Lebanon.

“I am returning to join the ranks of the people suffering from an unprecedented poverty, … corruption and anarchy,” he said, although he gave no specifics about when and how he would return and claimed he risked assassination if he tried to go back now.

Assad said he had approached the regime about his decision but had been rebuffed.

He said he will first give the Syrian regime a chance to change the constitution, hold fair elections, allow pluralism, free press, respect human rights and rights of women, fight corruption, reform the judiciary, and not allow foreign interference in the country’s internal affairs.

If the government does not reform, he said, he will call on the Syrian people to remove the government.

Rifaat Assad also said he was for peace between Syria and Israel, while stressing that such a goal was not as high a priority as political and economic reform.

In 1983, as Hafez Assad lay in a hospital recuperating from a heart attack, Rifaat’s tanks began maneuvering on the streets of Damascus in moves that were seen as an attempted coup. In the interview, he denied he had attempted a coup. But Rifaat Assad was banished and stripped of all official posts. His elite army unit 569 was disbanded. He has lived in Marbella off and on ever since.

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Associated Press correspondent Daniel Woolls contributed to this report.

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