Egypt Crisis: Mass Rally Held Against Mohammed Mursi

Egypt crisis: Mass rally held against Mohammed Mursi

BBC News, Nov. 27, 2012

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20514011

The BBC’s Bethany Bell reports as thousands of people gather in Tahrir Square, Cairo

Tens of thousands of people have held protests in Cairo against Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi, who last week granted himself sweeping new powers.

Flag-waving demonstrators chanted slogans accusing the president and the Muslim Brotherhood of betraying last year’s revolution.

On Monday Mr Mursi sought to defuse the crisis by saying the decree granting him new powers was limited in scope.

However, his opponents want him to withdraw the measure completely.

Ahead of Tuesday’s rally, opposition activists clashed with police protecting the nearby US embassy. A protester, who was in his fifties, died of a heart attack after inhaling tear gas.

Activists later converged on Tahrir Square – the main focus of the revolution that ousted President Hosni Mubarak – for one of the largest demonstrations to date against Mr Mursi.
“The people want to bring down the regime,” marchers chanted, echoing slogans used in last year’s protests.<
“We don’t want a dictatorship again. The Mubarak regime was a dictatorship. We had a revolution to have justice and freedom,” protester Ahmed Husseini was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

Journalists, lawyers and opposition figures – including Nobel Peace prize laureate Mohammed ElBaradei- joined Tuesday’s rally,

“The main demand is to withdraw the constitutional declaration,” said Amr Moussa, a former Arab League chief who has joined the opposition.

Protests were also held in Alexandria and other cities.

‘Sovereign’ matters

The president’s decree – known as the constitutional declaration – said no authority could revoke his decisions.

President Mursi says he wants to find common ground

There is a bar on judges dissolving the assembly drawing up a new constitution. The president is also authorised to take any measures to preserve the revolution, national unity or safeguard national security.

Critics say the decree, issued last Thursday, is an attack on the judiciary. It has sparked violent protests across the country.

On Monday Mr Mursi told senior judges that the scope of the measure would be restricted to “sovereign matters”, designed to protect institutions.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which supports President Mursi, said it was postponing its own demonstration, originally due on Tuesday, to avoid “public tension”.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo says the postponement is another sign that the government wants to defuse confrontation, but it remains to be seen whether it ends the days of angry and sometimes violent protests.

Egypt’s union of judges, known as the Judges Club, rejected the president’s statement, calling it “worthless” and said they would continue to suspend work in courts.

Palestinians say UN bid is last-ditch peace effort

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas arrives at the United Nations Plaza Hotel, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2012, in New York. The Palestinians predicted a historic U.N. vote recognizing their statehood this week, praising important new support from France on Tuesday and likely backing from other European nations seen as critical to enhancing their international standing. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — A bid for U.N. recognition of a state of Palestine is a last-ditch attempt to rescue troubled Mideast peace efforts, a Palestinian spokeswoman said Wednesday, rejecting Israel's charge that it is an attempt to bypass negotiations.

Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, urged the U.S. to drop its opposition to the bid, dismissing Washington's stance as "pathetic" and harmful to American interests in the region. The Palestinians have come under intense pressure from the U.S., Britain and others to modify the bid but "have not succumbed," she said.

On Thursday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to ask the U.N. General Assembly to recognize Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem, areas Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, but still controls most access.

The Palestinians expect some two-thirds of the General Assembly's 193 members will accept Palestine as a non-member observer state. The U.S., Israel, Canada and a few others are opposed.

The vote will not change the situation on the ground, yet the Palestinians still say it is significant.

Abbas has said U.N. recognition is not meant to replace negotiations with Israel, but to improve Palestinian leverage and secure the pre-1967 war frontiers as the baseline for future border talks — an idea Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected.

This does not mean the U.N. vote will pave the way for a quick resumption of talks, which broke down four years ago.

Abbas has said he will not negotiate as long as Israel keeps expanding settlements on war-won land. Half a million Israelis now live in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, blurring the 1967 lines.

Beyond a 10-month partial halt in 2009 that failed to restart sustained peace talks, Netanyahu has refused to freeze construction in settlements, and U.N. recognition of "Palestine" will not soften Abbas' refusal to negotiate without a freeze, his aides say.

Referring to Israeli settlement building, Ashrawi said Wednesday that the U.N. bid "is a last-ditch effort, because we believe the two-state solution (a Palestinian state alongside Israel) is in jeopardy as a result of these actions."

She said if the U.S. "can't vote yes, at least don't vote no, because that would be seen as being really pathetic by the rest of the world."

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev dismissed the U.N. quest as futile, saying only negotiations with Israel can bring about a Palestinian state.

"They can get pieces of paper from the U.N., but they are not going to move peace forward, they are not going to make a Palestinian statehood more real," he said.

"They boycott Israel. They refuse to talk to us. Who do they plan to make peace with?" he said.

Surveys indicate most Palestinians have become disillusioned with prospects of setting up a state through negotiations. Two decades of talks have failed to produce results, marred by intransigence and repeated bouts of violence.

The vote comes at an important time domestically for Abbas, who has watched his political rival, the Islamic militant Hamas, gain popularity, particularly after holding its own during an Israeli offensive on Hamas-ruled Gaza earlier this month, aimed at stopping almost daily rocket barrages from Gaza at southern Israel.

Hamas, which seized control of Gaza from Abbas in 2007, argues that negotiations with Israel are a waste of time, but Hamas leaders have come out in support of the U.N. bid in recent days.

During Israel's Gaza offensive, Abbas was largely sidelined at his compound in the West Bank, underscoring international concerns that the deadlock in peace efforts is increasingly weakening him and other Palestinian pragmatists.

Abbas aides have said they expect key European countries to support the U.N. bid at the last minute in an attempt to strengthen Abbas.

On Tuesday, France announced its support, followed on Wednesday by similar pledges from Spain, Norway, Denmark and Switzerland. Germany said it would not support the initiative.

Israel appeared to be backing away from plans to immediately punish the Palestinians for going to the U.N. Instead, an Israeli government official said Israel would wait to see whether the Palestinians would use the world body's expected approval to hurt Israel.

The Palestinians plan to seek membership or access to a number of international and U.N. agencies, including the International Criminal Court, once their statehood bid is approved.

Israel would respond "forcefully" if the Palestinians try to pursue war crimes charges against Israel at the ICC, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss policy considerations. If the Palestinians use their upgraded international status "as a tool to confront Israel in the international arena, there will be a response."

Until then, he said, Israel will be bound by its obligations to the Palestinians under existing peace agreements, but won't necessarily go beyond them. Earlier there was talk of Israel's retaliating by canceling the partial peace accords.

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Associated Press writer Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed reporting.

Germany: won't back Palestinian state at UN

Iran showcases new warships near strategic waters

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's state TV is showcasing additions to its Navy including a missile-launching warship around the size of a frigate.

Navy officials watched as the domestically-produced Sina-7, equipped with anti-ship missiles, was launched Wednesday at Bandar Abbas, near the strategic Strait of Hormuz. Two new Iranian-built Ghadir submarines and two repaired hovercrafts were also delivered to the Navy.

The TV quoted Navy chief Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying that Iran must possess the "newest technology and top-grade facilities to protect its borders."

Ghadir class submarines can fire missiles and torpedoes at the same time, and can operate in the Persian Gulf's shallow waters.

Iran has sought to upgrade its air defense and naval capabilities, saying any possible future attacks on it would come from the air and sea.

Iran: Nuclear enrichment advances with 'intensity'

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's nuclear chief says uranium enrichment will move ahead with "intensity" with a sharp increase in the number of centrifuges used to make the nuclear fuel.

Wednesday's statement attributed to Fereidoun Abbasi by state TV is likely to escalate tensions between Iran and the West, which fears the enrichment program could lead to warhead-grade material. Iran says it only seeks to make fuel for energy and research reactors.

But it appears unlikely that the stepped up work would be at higher enrichment levels than already acknowledged to U.N. nuclear watchdogs.

The remarks come days after the U.N. agency said Iran is poised to double its output of higher-enriched uranium at its fortified Fordo underground uranium enrichment facility, which could put Tehran closer to possible warhead capabilities.