Egypt’s ruling military council ends deadlock on the constituent assembly

After Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) issued an ultimatum, 22 political parties negotiated a deal with the ruling military council on the composition of the constituent assembly which is tasked with drafting a new constitution. The military council said if the parties couldn’t agree on the membership terms to the 100-person body by Thursday, the council would either write its own constitutional declaration or reinstitute the 1971 constitution which was frozen after last year’s uprisings. The SCAF called for the parliament to meet on Tuesday, June 12 to select members, which will include 39 members of political parties and 61 prominent civic and religious public figures. The body has been divided equally between Islamists and non-Islamists after the original assembly was dissolved over Islamist domination.

Syria

Speaking in front of the U.N. Security Council, international envoy Kofi Annan admitted for the first time that his six-point peace plan for Syria is not being implemented. He attributing most of the blame to President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Annan called for the Security Council to "determine what more can be done to secure implementation of the plan" and urged for "consequences" if the parties don’t comply. He cautioned "the danger of a civil war is imminent and real." U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon used some of the strongest language yet to denounce the violence committed by the Syrian government, and said the recent mass killings were "indicative of a pattern that may amount to crimes against humanity." He expressed concern for the unarmed U.N. observers saying they had regularly been blocked from sites, and in some cases deliberately targeted. Two days after a massacre in the village of Mazraat al-Qubeir, U.N. monitors are trying for the second time to access the site, after being blocked and fired upon on Thursday. The Syrian government and activists are offering contradictory accounts of Wednesday’s attacks — activists claim it was the work of government forces, and shabiha militiamen, while the regime has blamed armed terrorists. Meanwhile, new shelling has been reported in Homs, however there is no information yet on casualties.

Headlines  

• The IAEA is seeking access to restricted nuclear sites in renewed talks with Iran while China urged Iran to be "flexible and pragmatic."
• Renowned Lebanese journalist, politician, and diplomat, Ghassan Tueni, an activist for media rights, died at age 86.

Arguments & Analysis

‘Egypt Struggles Toward a President’ (The New York Times)

"Many Egyptian voters want to move beyond the old choices of autocracy or conservative Islam. In the first round of voting, two moderates – the secular leftist Hamdeen Sabahi and Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, a Brotherhood dissident – together got more votes than either of the winning candidates. Both men, and their supporters, will need to keep making their voices heard. The Obama administration needs to be thinking now about how it can best use its limited leverage. The administration has prepared a package of economic assistance, including a debt swap, for the new government. Egypt needs the help. Washington needs to make clear to Mr. Morsi that it will work with him and the Brotherhood – so long as they respect the rights of all Egyptians. It needs to tell Mr. Shafik the same and make clear that autocracy for stability, the old basis for business with Cairo, is over."

‘Tehran’s Man in Baghdad‘ (Kevjn Lim, The National Interest)

"The last round of the P5+1 talks weren’t held in volatile Baghdad by chance. While Iran’s nuclear dispute still has no clear endgame in sight, the next phase in Persian power play is quietly being rolled out next door, with potential implications for the region and beyond. For some time, Iran has been marking its territory in post-Baathist Iraq. Tehran wants to neuter the prospects of a "Saddam 2.0" regime and consolidate its presence in ground zero for the world’s roughly two hundred million Shiite Muslims (after Saudi Arabia that is, where Mecca and Medina are commonly revered by all Muslims). But more is afoot. Reports suggest that Tehran is also angling to replace Iraq’s most revered spiritual leader-Grand Ayatollah Ali Hossein al-Sistani-with one of its own."

–By Jennifer Parker and Mary Casey