MOROCCO: Vote today on new constitution.
Moroccans will vote today on a constitution that the king has presented as wide-ranging reform, even as activists maintain it simply perpetuates an autocracy.
Like all referendums in the North African country, the measure is likely to pass, buoyed by King Mohammed VI’s continuing religious and political legitimacy and a huge media campaign.
Morocco, like many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, was swept by pro-democracy demonstrations at the beginning of the year over a lack of freedoms, a weak economy and political corruption.
The monarch, however, seems to have managed the popular disaffection by presenting a constitution that guarantees the rights of women and minorities, and increases the powers of the parliament and judiciary, ostensibly at the expense of his own.
EGYPT: U.S. will work with Muslim Brotherhood.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday that U.S. officials intend to build contacts with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, a sign of American concern that the conservative Islamic group is becoming one of the most important political forces in the post-Mubarak order.
Speaking to reporters in Budapest, Hungary, Clinton said that “given the changing political landscape in Egypt, . . . it is in the interests of the United States to engage with all parties that are peaceful, and committed to non-violence, that intend to compete for the parliament and the presidency.”
The group’s rigid ideological views have been a concern to many Israelis and their supporters in the United States, and word of the administration’s plans might cause further unease. The group has advocated armed resistance against Israel.
SYRIA: Syrian troops spread out near Turkish border.
Syrian army forces spread through a restive mountainous area near the Turkish border on Thursday as the death toll from a two-day military siege rose to 19 people, according to activists and a witness.
The action by Syrian troops in the northwestern area of Jabal al-Zawiya appeared to be aimed at preventing residents from fleeing to Turkey, where more than 10,000 Syrians have already taken shelter in refugee camps, activists say. The refugees have been a source of deep embarrassment to Damascus, one of the most tightly controlled regimes in the Middle East.
Denver Post wire services
