Egypt Live Coverage: Protesters Fill Tahrir Square Again

Police fire tear gas at protesters near Tahrir Square in Cairo this morning

---

1530 GMT: The head of the Constituent Assembly, Hossam el-Gheriyani, has said the final draft of a Constitution will be finished on Wednesday, and three other members said the document will be put to a vote on Thursday.

1420 GMT: The Muslim Brotherhood and Salafist parties are now saying they will hold protests across Egypt on Saturday in support of President Morsi.

Mahmoud Ghozlan, the Brotherhood's spokesman, said, "We have called for pro-Mursi nationwide protests. The exact locations of the protests are currently being discussed."

Salah Abdel Maboud, a leading member of the Salafi Nour Party, confirmed that Islamists would stage protests on Saturday, including a possible gathering in Cairo's Tahrir Square.

Click to read more ...

Syria Feature: US Officials --- We Are Hindered by "Intelligence Gaps" Inside Country (Miller and Warrick)

A destroyed regime tank in the Sakhour section of Aleppo on Monday

---

Sixteen months into the uprising in Syria, the United States is struggling to develop a clear understanding of opposition forces inside the country, according to U.S. officials who said that intelligence gaps have impeded efforts to support the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

U.S. spy agencies have expanded their efforts to gather intelligence on rebel forces and Assad’s regime in recent months, but they are still largely confined to monitoring intercepted communications and observing the conflict from a distance, officials said.

Interviews with U.S. and foreign intelligence officials revealed that the CIA has been unable to establish a presence in Syria, in contrast with the agency’s prominent role gathering intelligence from inside Egypt and Libya during revolts in those countries.

With no CIA operatives on the ground in Syria and only a handful stationed at key border posts, the agency has been heavily dependent on its counterparts in Jordan and Turkey and on other regional allies.

Click to read more ...

Egypt Feature: Does the Solution Lie in the Economy? (Bohn/Lister)

"No to Poverty, No to Unemployment, No to Torture"In 18 months of upheaval, all Egypt's economic indicators have headed south.

Growth is a projected 1.5% this fiscal year, far too feeble to provide a young and rapidly growing population with jobs (80% of Egypt's population is under age 30). Unemployment, one of the engines of the revolution, is estimated to be as high as 25% among the young. Tourism revenues have fallen sharply, and foreign reserves have dwindled to $15 billion. According to the United Nations, some 40% of Egyptians live below the poverty line; 14 million people subsist on less than $1 a day. Institutions are chronically weak and corruption is endemic.

Click to read more ...

Egypt Revealed: Military Rulers "Planned with Judge to Preserve Their Power" (Kirkpatrick)

Background on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces

---

Even as they promised to hand authority to elected leaders, Egypt’s ruling generals were planning with one of the nation’s top judges to preserve their political power and block the rise of the Islamists, the judge said.

Tahani el-Gebali, deputy president of the Supreme Constitutional Court, said she advised the generals not to cede authority to civilians until a Constitution was written. The Supreme Court then issued a decision that allowed the military to dissolve the first fairly elected Parliament in Egypt’s history and assure that the generals could oversee drafting of a Constitution.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (25 June): Doing the Currency Slide

See also Iran Letter: Activist Narges Mohammadi "Prison is Causing My Slow Death"
Iran Caption Competition: Mr and Mrs Ahmadinejad...and a Ballot Box
The Latest from Iran (24 June): "We Can Destroy Anyone"

---

2055 GMT: Foreign Affairs (Egyptian Front). Back to today's running story of the Revolutionary Guards' PR offensive to prove Iran's alliance with Egyptian President-elect Mohamed Morsi (see 1025 GMT).

Rivals within the establishment, namely State news agency IRNA, may have denounced the interview of Morsi by Fars, linked to the Guards, as a fake; however, that has not stopped the website. Tonight, its English-language edition features no less than five stories based on the alleged discussion with Morsi.

The Persian-language site of Fars also has several articles, as well as a claimed audio and video of Egyptian media noting the supposed interview.

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Regime on Its Last Legs?

2016 GMT: Syria. The discussion continues (see last 2 updates) - Hama Echo offers another blog post that has analyzed videos coming from this artillery site. However, according to the analysis, the second video we've posted is older than the 1st one that claims to have been taken today.

The blog post also analyses what weapons appear to be used, and where those weapons appear to be located. The post focuses on comparing the videos of this camp to the ordinance that has reportedly been used against the city of Homs in the past. It's complicated, but a good read.

Our conclusion? The two videos taken together serve as fairly convincing evidence that shabiha are conducting military operations inside the artillery camp, and are being directly trained by the Syrian military. The evidence is compelling, but not indisputable. The blogger Bjørn H Jespersen offers compelling evidence that the videos show an artillery base in El Waer, Homs, with mortars firing in the direction of the populated city.

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Conflict Renewed

2011 GMT: Syria. According to the Local Coordinating Committees, large protests are being held tonight in Douma, a key suburb of Damascus:

However, there is also a report that security forces have raided Daraya, another suburb, and one that has seen regular night time firefights over the last several days. This video reportedly shows the gunfire:

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Elections Amid the Protests

Saturday night in the Damascus suburb of Douma, after the visit of United Nations observers (see 0855 GMT)

Bahrain Live Coverage: Prominent Activist Nabeel Rajab Arrested
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "Time to Call It What It Is"

---

2050 GMT: Syria. A protest in Talbiseh tonight:

1940 GMT: Syria. For the first time, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has met with Syrian refugees, speaking to them near the border town of Kilis in southeastern Turkey.

"You are getting stronger each passing day," Erdogan said. "Your victory is not far....Bashar [President Assad] is losing blood each passing day,""

About 23,000 Syrians are estimated to now be in Turkish camps, having fled since the start of the uprising in March 2011.

Click to read more ...

Egypt Feature: The Muslim Brotherhood Comes to America (Bohn)

Sondos AsemSondos Asem has butterflies, formulating answers to questions she expects to be asked and practicing her diction with the devotion of a high school debate champion. The gentle 24-year-old graduate student at the American University in Cairo is in a hotel room in downtown New York, figuring out what to wear on national television. ("This blazer would look good, right?" "Should I wear more color?")

Like many young Egyptians, she's been tweeting the fallout after the 2011 uprising that brought down former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak. The stakes are higher than 140-character dispatches might suggest. Asem has emerged as an unlikely unofficial spokeswoman for the Muslim Brotherhood, helping to run its English-language Twitter feed, @Ikhwanweb, and in turn revamp the group's image in the West.

Click to read more ...

Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Peace Plan Accepted?

A demonstration in front of the Grand Mosque in the Damascus suburb of Douma on Tuesday night

See also Middle East and Iran Videos: 4 Activists on Women's Rights After the "Arab Spring"
Tuesday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: 65 Dead Amidst Manoeuvres for Talks

---

2110 GMT: Kuwaiti authorities arrested a man late on Tuesday for allegedly insulting the Prophet Mohammed on his Twitter account.

The man, whose name was not disclosed, defamed the Islamic faith and slandered the Prophet Mohammed, his companions and his wife, the Ministry of Interior said in a statement issued on state-run news agency KUNA. He is being interrogated ahead of court proceedings.

The ministry saiid that it “regretted the abusing of social networks by some individuals to offend basic Islamic and spiritual values, vowing to show zero tolerance in combating such serious offences”.

In September a Kuwaiti court convicted a man for insulting Gulf rulers and posting inflammatory sectarian comments on social media, but he was released immediately because of time already served while awaiting trial.

Click to read more ...