Syria moves to allow other political parties

Egypt’s generals seek out allies; Iran tends to rift

July 26, 2011|Associated Press

An army officer yesterday joined protesters demanding the resignation… (Hani Mohammed/Associated…)

BEIRUT - Syria’s government has endorsed a draft law that it says will allow the formation of political parties alongside President Bashar Assad’s ruling Ba’ath Party, part of a series of promised reforms that the opposition has dismissed as largely symbolic.

The development came as security forces detained dozens of people in the capital, Damascus, and several other cities in a search for antigovernment protesters and regime opponents, activists said yesterday. The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said a 7-year-old child, a boxing champion, and a writer were among those arrested.

The multiparty bill, approved by the Cabinet late Sunday, follows other concessions Assad has made as part of his efforts to quell more than four months of protests against his regime. He has coupled his pledges of reform with a deadly crackdown on protesters that activists say has killed at least 1,600 people.

The draft law, which still needs parliamentary approval, would allow for the establishment of any political party which is not based on religious or tribal lines, or discriminates due to ethnicity, gender, or race, the state-run news agency said.

Assad’s ruling Ba’ath Party, which calls for “unity, freedom, and socialism,’’ has held a monopoly over political life in Syria for decades.

A key demand of the protest movement is the abolition of Article 8 in the Syrian constitution, which states that the Ba’ath Party is the leader of the state and society.

Lawmaker Mohammad Habash said the bill will probably be debated by Parliament at the next session on Aug. 7.

Yesterday, security forces tightened their siege of neighborhoods in Homs, in central Syria, sending military reinforcements and cutting mobile and land lines in the Khaldieh and Bayada districts, activists said.

An activist in Homs said there were fears of a large-scale military operation to try to force an end to the unrest there before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins next week.

Egypt

Egypt’s ruling military and protesters seeking greater and faster change are moving toward an outright collision, as the generals try to strip away public support for the movement while cozying up to the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood.

Youth activists are not backing down, betting that Egyptians’ dissatisfaction with the military’s running of the country will grow.

The generals, in power since the February ouster of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak, have launched an intensified media campaign against the protest activists, depicting them as a troublemaking minority and agents of foreign governments.