- China's neighbors pick sides in South China Sea dispute
- Egypt's Morsi fires the army chief and announces a Constitutional Declaration
- Egypt forces fight Sinai militants, in biggest battle since 1973
China's neighbors pick sides in South China Sea dispute
Cambodia's Prime Minister Hun Sen at ASEAN meeting, where he strongly sided with China against Vietnam and Philippines. (Reuters)
One of the purposes of the formation of the 10-member Association of
Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was to present a united front to the
members' powerful neighbor, China. However, ASEAN unity was shattered
at last month's meeting, when Cambodia strongly sided with China
against Vietnam and the Philippines in negotiations over control of
the South China Sea. Unlike many other southeast Asian countries,
where students usually wish to learn English as a foreign language,
Cambodian students are learning Mandarin Chinese. China also has
growing influence with Laos and Myanmar (Burma) as well. As I've been
writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts that China, Pakistan
and the Sunni Muslim countries will oppose the West, India, Russia and
Iran in the coming Clash of Civilizations world war. This new
analysis gives greater insight into how the countries of southeast
Asia might pick sides in that war. Reuters
Egypt's Morsi fires the army chief and announces a Constitutional Declaration
President Mohamed Morsi stunned Egypt on Sunday with two dramatic
moves to take power from the army and give it to himself:
- He fired Defense Minister and Field Marshall Mohamed Hussein
Tantawi, 76, who had headed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces
(SCAF), the junta that ran Egypt since Hosni Mubarak was deposed in
February 2011. He fired other military chiefs as well, and replaced
them.
- He unilaterally threw out a Constitutional Addendum that SCAF had
announced several weeks ago to give itself almost total control over
the government. He announced a new Constitutional Declaration giving
himself similar powers.
The move comes one week after Egyptians were shocked to learn that 16
Egyptian soldiers were ambushed and killed in Sinai by jihadist
militants, near the border with Israel. Field Marshall Tantawi and
SCAF have been extremely unpopular since they took control early last
year, and last week's ambush seems to have sealed their fate.
The text of President Morsi's new Constitution Declaration is as follows:
"1- The 17 June 2012 constitutional addendum is to be
abrogated.
2- Article 25, clause 2 of the 30 March 2011 Constitutional
Declaration is to be replaced with the following text: "And he
[the president] will undertake all his duties as stipulated by
Article 56 of this declaration." [Article 56 outlines the
authorities of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces and grants
the latter full executive and legislative powers, now held by
Morsi.]
3- If the Constituent Assembly [tasked with drafting a new
constitution] is prevented from doing its duties, the president
can draw up a new assembly representing the full spectrum of
Egyptian society mandated with drafting a new national charter
within three months of the assembly's formation. The new draft
constitution is to be put before a nationwide referendum within 30
days after it is written. Parliamentary elections are to be held
within two months of the public’s approval of the draft
constitution.
4- This new Constitutional Declaration is to be published in
Egypt's official gazette and will be put into effect the following
day."
There were initial fears expressed that SCAF would mobilize troops to
stop Morsi's "coup," but so far there have been no signs of anything
like that happening. The Muslim Brotherhood's Morsi is Egypt's first
democratically elected President in the country's 5000 year history.
CS Monitor and Al-Ahram (Cairo)
Egypt forces fight Sinai militants, in biggest battle since 1973
One issue that seems to have united secularists, liberals, Salafists
and Islamists in Egypt is the insistence that law and order must be
reimposed in the Sinai region where 16 Egyptian border guards were
killed last week. The army began a military crackdown in earnest on
Wednesday, and on Sunday killed five militants in a firefight where
the Egyptian troops came under fire from rocket-propelled grenades.
Under the 1979 peace agreement with Israel, Egypt is not permitted to
bring troops into Sinai, but Israel is now demanding that Egypt bring
the region under control, and so the fighting is the most seen since
the 1973 war with Israel. There is some evidence that the Sinai is
becoming the new great attraction for militant Jihadists who wish to
fight against Israel and a moderate Egypt.
Reuters
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