Rival protests held as Egypt referendum due

Rival sides in Egypt's political crisis are staging rallies in Cairo a day before the first round of voting begins on a contentious draft constitution.

The National Salvation Front of opposition groups has organised demonstrations at the presidential palace and in Cairo's Tahrir Square on Friday, after deciding to call on followers to vote "no" in the referendum scheduled for December 15 and 22.

Al Jazeera's Rory Challands, reporting from Cairo, said the opposition fears the constitution "gives too much emphasis on Islamic law ... They would like to see more emphasis given on rights and freedoms". In particular, those planning to vote against the draft constitution want additional rights for workers and women.

The Coalition of Islamist Forces is describing a vote in favour of the draft as "yes" for Islam and has staged its own rally at Nasr City in the capital following mid-day prayers.

Rallies were also held in other cities, and in Alexandria, Egypt's second city, those demonstraitons turned violent, resulting in clashes between the two sides.

Witnesses said that a number of people were injured as the fighting spread from a mosque where Friday prayers were held to main roads. Scuffles started near the mosque when opposition members handing out flyers clashed with Morsi supporters.

Witnesses said that some supporters of the draft constitution brandished swords, while the opposition hurled stones after the sermon. At least two cars also were set on fire.

'This is democracy'

Those who support the draft say the constitutent assembly that helped draft the constitution represents the people of Egypt. In Nasr City, the people "are essentially saying 'this is democracy'", said our correspondent.

Our correspondent also said a victory for the opposition would prove difficult as the more conservative segments of society "have the stronger mobilisation".

Voting has been taking place at Egyptian embassies abroad and Egyptians abroad are voting for a third day, with more than 500,000 people expected to cast their votes in 150 countries.

The draft constitution, approved by the constituent assembly last month, has become the focus of Egypt's worst political crisis since the June election of Mohamed Morsi, the president.

Rival mass rallies held by both supporters and opponents of Morsi have become almost a daily occurrence in Cairo.

Clashes between the two groups killed at least seven people and injured hundreds more last week.

The crisis has necessitated a ramping up of security around the presidential palace, which has been the focal point of anti-Morsi protests.

Iraq seeks around 1 mln tons more gasoil for 2013

Iraq’s State Oil Marketing Company (SOMO) is seeking nearly 1 million tons of gasoil on behalf of the country’s electricity ministry to supply power stations in 2013, a tender document showed on Tuesday. 

SOMO is tendering for 1,260 metric tons a day of gasoil to be delivered Feb. 1-March 31, or a total of 74,340 tons over the two months, with another 3,360 tons a day required from April through to the end of 2013, amounting to 924,000 tons.

The seller will have to deliver the fuel to the Iraqi port of Basra and then transport it by road to Iraqi power stations.

Submission of bids begins on Dec. 13 and the tender closes on Dec. 26, SOMO said.

In November, SOMO finalized a term deal to buy up to 1.097 million tons of gasoil for delivery next year from Swiss trader Vitol and oil major BP, according to traders.

Egypt braces for protests over constitution

Opponents and supporters of Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi's plans to proceed with a referendum on a draft constitution have vowed to take to the streets in Cairo, risking more violent confrontation after last week's deadly clashes.

Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups have called for marches to the presidential palace on Tuesday afternoon to protest against the hastily arranged referendum planned for Saturday.

The centre-right Islamists, who dominated the body that drew up the constitution, have urged their followers to turn out "in millions" the same day in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning.

Critics of the draft constitution say it disregards the rights of women and ignores personal freedoms.

The opposition, stubbornly calling for the referendum to be delayed, was still trying to decide late on Monday whether to boycott the vote or rally Egyptians to vote "no" to the draft.

Egypt's political crisis began on November 22 when Morsi issued a decree expanding his powers, granting himself immunity from judicial oversight or challenge. The decree, which he later withdrew, sparked mass demonstrations.

Seven people were killed and hundreds wounded last week in clashes between the supporters of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood and opponents besieging the graffiti-daubed presidential palace.

EGYPT TURMOIL

Nov 22: Morsi grants himself sweeping new powers, triggering days of protests.Nov 24: Judges call for nationwide strike in courts and prosecution offices to protest the decree. Nov 29: The constituent assembly adopts a draft constitution. The opposition says it was rushed through without proper consultation. Dec 1: Morsi says referendum on the draft will be held on December 15. Dec 5: Seven people are killed and hundreds wounded as opponents and supporters of Morsi clash. Dec 9: Morsi rescinds his controversial decree

Military empowered

The elite Republican Guard has yet to use force to keep protesters away from the palace, now ringed with tanks, barbed wire and concrete barricades, but a decree issued by Morsi late on Sunday gives the armed forces the power to arrest civilians during the referendum and until the announcement of the results.

Middle East author Rachel Shabi predicted that Egypt's woes will only get worse if Saturday's referendum goes ahead.

"There's obviously a deep structural problem with a referendum over a constitution that most people won't even have had time to read and digest, never mind all the structural problems with the fact that the constitution was put together by an assembly that is not representative and was repeatedly criticised for being so unrepresentative," she told Al Jazeera in London.

"I do think the only way to dispel this crisis ... is to talk to the opposition and to build consensus over a postponed referendum and constitution."

The Egyptian president insists on holding the referendum on schedule, despite concerns over who will monitor the vote. Several groups of judges have said they will not oversee the referendum, as is customary for judges in Egypt.

Judges of the nation's administrative courts announced on Monday they were conditionally lifting their boycott of the vote, but they said their supervision of the process was conditional on bringing an end to the siege of the Supreme Constitutional Court by Morsi's supporters.

In exchange for their supervision, they also demanded assurances that authorities would crack down on vote canvassing outside polling stations and offer life insurance policies to the judges.

'Political polarisation'

Leftist politician Hamdeen Sabahy, one of the most prominent members of the National Salvation Front opposition coalition, said Morsi was driving a wedge between Egyptians and destroying prospects for consensus.

"The road Mohamed Morsi is taking now does not create the possibility for national consensus," Sabahy said.

If the constitution was passed, he said: "Egypt will continue in this really charged state. It is certain that this constitution is driving us to more political polarisation."

The National Salvation Front also includes Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei and former Arab League chief Amr Moussa.

Morsi's decision on Saturday to retract a decree awarding himself wide powers failed to placate opponents who accused him of plunging Egypt deeper into crisis by refusing to postpone the vote on the constitution scheduled for December 15.

"We are against this process from start to finish," Hussein Abdel Ghani, spokesperson of the National Salvation Front, said.

Syrian civil war creates ‘mosaic’ economy

The Syrian economy has crumbled into a disjointed patchwork as civil war rages in the country, forcing some people to subsist through looting while others collect ransoms and civil servants continue to pay taxes and receive state salaries.

“Twenty-one months into the revolt -- with large swathes of territory slipping from government control -- we can no longer speak of just one Syrian economy,” said Jihad Yazigi, director of the Syria Report economic website. “Now we have a mosaic of economies.”

While some estimates put Syrian annual inflation at 40 percent in August, the reality varies enormously from areas still under control of the regime in Damascus to those which have fallen into rebel hands.

In the rebel-held Old City in Homs, located in central Syria and besieged by government troops for the past six months, hundreds of families live in abject poverty and survive on insurgent handouts, activists say.

“We don’t use money, there is no use for it here. There is nothing we can buy, and no goods come from outside the area,” said Abu Bilal, an anti-regime activist in Homs.

“We have to make do with what we have here,” the activist told AFP via e-mail, adding that to survive residents took food from shops that have been abandoned in the Old City.

Once a week, on Thursday, activists give food handouts to residents. “We distribute free tea, sugar, bulgur, rice, oil and suet,” said Abu Bilal. “There are no fresh vegetables or meat, and very little medicine is left.”

In government-controlled Damascus, life is totally different.

Fruits and vegetables from all over Syria, and even goods imported from Egypt and Jordan are available in the Souk al-Hal market in the eastern part of the capital, although prices have doubled.

The deadly conflict has not stymied agriculture throughout Syria, where farmers still harvest olives in the north and till the land in other parts of the country.

Syrian exports to neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq have not stopped either.

A Lebanese poultry merchant said he received regular shipments of eggs and chicken from the Homs region, and vegetable stalls in Baghdad are stacked with Syrian produce.

Syrian industry is in a sorry state, however.

“Most factories have closed down because of the security situation or lack of fuel,” said a member of the Chamber of Industry in Aleppo, Syria’s second city and its economic hub.

In many parts of Syria, a parallel war economy is booming meanwhile.

Several months ago, the so-called Sunni Market was born in the Homs district of Nozha, home to a majority of Alawites, who belong to the same religious community as President Bashar al-Assad.

“Goods looted from houses owned by families who fled Sunni neighborhoods when the army took over are sold for a song,” said a Homs resident who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The Shabiha (pro-regime militia) also ‘sell’ streets,” he said. “By selling I mean they make people pay to allow them to go and loot abandoned homes,” he explained.

But what goes around often comes around and in rebel-held areas of northern Syria, the houses of people believed to be Shabiha are also pillaged and cars once-owned by alleged regime supporters are sold on the underground market, an AFP journalist said.

Kidnappings have flourished in some areas, according to Fouad, an activist from Aleppo who nonetheless added that “the amount of the ransoms has dropped because most businessmen have fled the area.”

Syria’s war economy also thrives on smuggling that has risen along the Turkish border since the rebels seized several frontier posts.

And truckers stopped at checkpoints manned by soldiers or rebels must pay a “road tax to ensure safe passage,” according to Abdel Karim, who runs a transport company in Aleppo.

Since September, the Syrian pound has dropped on the unofficial market from 70 to 90 per dollar but it remains the currency of reference in the war-torn country, where dollars and Turkish lira also trade hands.

The government still collects taxes in areas under its control, and state employees are paid regularly, even those who live in rebel-held areas.

“In Aleppo, a plane transports funds to the central bank, and the money is distributed to all the commercial banks,” said Samer, who works at a state-run bank in the city. “This allows state employees to pick up their salaries.”

SENIOR YEMENI INTELLIGENCE OFFICER KILLED

Yemeni military officials say that a senior intelligence officer in southeastern Hadramawt province has been killed by two unknown assailants on a motorbike.

The officials said the attackers shot Brig. Gen. Ahmed Ba Ramada, deputy head of intelligence for Hadramawt, as he left his home Tuesday in Mukalla, the provincial capital.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief reporters.

Several senior Yemeni military and intelligence officials have been killed in the past few months. Officials believe al-Qaida is waging a retaliation campaign for a military offensive, backed by U.S. advisers, which pushed militants out of strongholds in several southern towns last summer.

The U.S. considers the local al-Qaida branch, which is also known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, the world's most active.

SYRIAN REBELS PRESS IN BATTLE FOR DAMASCUS AIRPORT

BEIRUT (AP) -- Syrian rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad declared Damascus International Airport a "legitimate target" Friday in a bid to cut off regime supplies, as clashes between government troops and rebels forced the closure of the airport road for the second time this week.

Fighting around the Syrian capital and the airport has intensified in recent days as rebels press a battle they hope will lead to the collapse of Assad's regime after 20 months of conflict. They have set their sights on the city of 1.7 million, and fighting on the outskirts is raising fears that it soon could be facing the most brutal battle of the Syrian civil war.

The rebels issued a stern warning to the regime and travelers planning to use the country's main airport, just a few kilometers (miles) south of the capital. Loss of control of the airport would be a major blow to the regime.

A fighter who is part of the push against the airport declared it a legitimate target, claiming that the regime has stationed troops and elite forces in it as well as military planes that transport ammunition.

The clashes already have forced the suspension of commercial flights over the past week, although airport officials said Friday the facility was still functioning.

Rebels said they were trying to cut military supplies to the government. Iran and Russia are widely believed to be supplying it with weapons through the airport. Over the past months, Turkey and Iraq stopped several planes coming from those two countries that were headed to Damascus and searched them.

"This would send a very strong political message to the regime, it will be a moral victory, to say the least," said the fighter, who gave only his first name, Nour, for security reasons. "The battle to cut off the regime supplies from the airport has started."

Another rebel, speaking on condition of anonymity for the same reason, said the airport is now considered a "military zone."

"We urge civilians to stay away," said the rebel, a member of the Damascus area military command involved in Friday's fighting.

An airport official said the highway leading to the facility was closed Friday because of the fighting. The officials said, however, that the airport was functioning as normal and that people were reaching it through side roads.

The official declined to be identified because he was not authorized to give official statements.

The fresh violence around the capital comes amid growing international concerns that Assad was preparing to use chemical weapons as an act of desperation.

Syria has not confirmed it has non-conventional weapons, and insists it would never use such arms against its own people. U.S. officials say intelligence suggests the government does have the weapons, and has moved some of its stockpiles in recent days.

Also on Friday, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon renewed a call for Syria to not use chemical weapons, saying the move would amount to an "outrageous crime" against humanity.

Speaking to reporters after visiting Syrian refugee camps in Jordan and Turkey, he also called for an end to the violence.

"The slaughter in Syria must stop. The military path is a dead end. It only fills the streets with more blood," he told reporters in Turkey.

Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Friday he had written to Syria's foreign minister urging his government to ban the use of chemical weapons by signing on to the current international convention "without delay."

Syrian opposition leaders said they were concerned the government would use its chemical weapons. George Sabra, head of the Syrian National Council opposition group, called on Syrian soldiers to ignore any orders to use them.

"Any civilian or military Syrian, who implements or helps implement this crime will be held accountable as a traitor for this country and will be pursued on charges of committing genocide," he said at a press conference in Paris.

"The Syrian people will not forgive or have mercy on anyone who orders the use of weapons of destruction and anyone who participates in executing this crime," he added.

Syrian activists said government forces were firing rockets and mortars at suburbs south of Damascus Friday amid heavy clashes with rebels. Most of the fighting was taking place in the towns of Aqraba and Beit Saham near the airport.

In other violence, a car bomb exploded in the government controlled Inshaat neighborhood in the central Homs province, setting cars on fire and covering the streets with debris, activists said.

An amateur video showed Syrian soldiers rushing to the scene as people cried in shock. It was not immediately clear what the target was.

CROWDS GREET HAMAS CHIEF ON 1ST-EVER GAZA VISIT

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- The exiled Hamas chief broke into tears Friday as he arrived in the Gaza Strip for his first-ever visit, a landmark trip reflecting his militant group's growing international acceptance and its defiance of Israel.

Khaled Mashaal, who left the West Bank as a child and now leads the Islamic group from Qatar, crossed the Egyptian border and once on Gazan soil, prostrated himself in a gesture of thanksgiving, recited a traditional Islamic prayer and kissed the ground.

He was greeted by a crowd of Hamas officials and representatives of Hamas' rival Fatah party.

Mashaal, 56, was also welcomed by a group of Palestinian children of Gaza militants killed by Israel in recent years, wearing military-style uniforms. Thousands of Hamas supporters lined the streets as Mashaal and Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh drove by, waving and flashing victory signs.

That the visit took place at all is a window on the changing climate of the Middle East and the balance of power among the factions and nations.

Hamas has received a boost from the rise of its parent movement, the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, following Arab Spring revolts - especially in Egypt. Deposed Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak barely tolerated Hamas, cooperating with Israel on a blockade of Gaza after Hamas overran it in 2007.

Israel, along with the U.S. and European Union, lists Hamas as a terror organization because of its history of attacks, including suicide bombings, against Israelis. Controlling most entrances to Gaza, Israel prevented most prominent diplomats from entering the territory after the violent Hamas takeover.

Egypt's new Brotherhood-dominated regime has welcomed Hamas leaders, negotiating a truce to end an eight-day flare-up between Hamas and Israel last month. Hamas trumpeted that as a victory, despite the new wave of death and destruction in the territory under its control in Israeli airstrikes, meant to stop daily Palestinian rocket attacks.

More significantly, in another precedent-setting series of events, the Egyptian prime minister and other foreign diplomats visited Gaza during the fighting, crossing in from Egypt, just as Mashaal did Friday.

"I have been dreaming of this historic moment my entire life, to come to Gaza," Mashaal told reporters as he stood alongside senior Hamas member Mousa Abu Marzouk and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. "I ask God to give me martyrdom one day on this land."

Mashaal appeared before the charred car of Hamas militant chief Ahmad Jabari, assassinated by Israel at the beginning of last month's round of violence. The eight-day conflict was the bloodiest round of Israel-Gaza fighting in four years. Militants launched hundreds of rockets on Israel and Israeli warplanes targeted an equal number of Hamas targets.

Mahmoud Zahar, senior Hamas member, said Mashaal's first visit was in celebration of Hamas' gains in the latest round of fighting.

"He should return after a victory," Zahar said. "This return came after a victory."

Mashaal's visit, though widely cheered, is nevertheless sensitive because of Palestinian political infighting. Mashaal, considered more pragmatic than Hamas' Gaza-based hard-line leaders, forged a reconciliation agreement with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who rules the West Bank. But the Gaza-based leadership, unsupportive of the agreement, has held up implementing it.

On Friday Mashaal asked aides to remove a red carpet laid out for him and refused an honor guard ceremony for his arrival. He appeared sensitive to the fact that Abbas still has not visited Gaza since Hamas wrested control of Gaza from his Fatah Party.

Palestinian officials in the West Bank expressed hope that Mashaal's visit would help finalize the Palestinian political unity deal.

Israel, which is reluctantly coming to terms with the shifting Palestinian power balance, mostly kept silent on the visit. A Foreign Ministry spokesman said Israel did not differentiate among various Hamas leaders.

"Hamas is Hamas is Hamas," said the spokesman, Yigal Palmor.

Fifteen years ago, Mashaal was nearly assassinated in Jordan by Israeli agents who squirted a deadly poison in his ear, narrowly escaping after the U.S. forced Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then serving his first term as premier, to provide the antidote.

Now a bolstered Mashaal appears in Gaza undeterred by neighboring Israel. Mashaal referred to the assassination attempt by "the foolish Netanyahu," saying, "God was stronger than him and his conspiracy."

Thousands of masked Hamas militants deployed throughout Gaza to protect Mashaal's convoy, with rocket propelled grenades, assault rifles and anti-aircraft weaponry in tow.

During Friday's visit, which was timed for the 25th anniversary of Hamas' founding, Mashaal also paid homage at the house of the group's spiritual leader Ahmed Yassin, who was paralyzed in a childhood accident and killed by a missile fired from an Israeli helicopter on March 22, 2004.

The assassination came at a time of heavy Israeli-Palestinian fighting that saw Hamas suicide bombers detonate their explosives inside buses, restaurants and other public places across Israel.

"The resistance was launched from this humble house, Yassin the giant of Jihad operated from here. We pledge to continue his path," Mashaal told reporters at Yassin's house, which has been turned into a museum of sorts. Yassin's sons and grandchildren greeted Mashaal, who stopped for a few moments by Yassin's broken wheelchair.