Syria, Egypt and Middle East unrest - live updates:
• Egypt's generals to have final say on new constitution
• Government of national unity formed in Yemen
9.00am GMT / 4am EST: Welcome to Middle East Live. Bashar al-Assad's defiant interview with ABC remains the main talking point. Here's a round up of the main developments:
Syria
• President Bashar al-Assad says he will not allow Arab League observers unfettered access to monitor the crackdown. In the full text of his interview with ABC's Barbara Walters, Assad said: "They cannot just come and do whatever they want." He said monitoring visits could only take place "in cooperation with the Syrian government." He also denied that the unrest in Syria amounted to a civil war.We have trouble we have turbulence but not, not to the extent that you have a divided army. If you have divided army you are going to have real war. You don't have war, you have– instability is different from war.• The head of the Arab League, Nabil al-Arabi, is to travel to Baghdad for talks with senior Iraqi officials on the Syria crisis. Iraq abstained on a League vote to impose sanctions against Syria.
• Syria's largest opposition group has accused Assad of being "delusional" after he insisted that documented cases of crimes against humanity were carried out by individuals outside his control. The Syrian National Council, said: "Assad has proved he is delusional and mixed up. By law, Assad is the commander in chief of the army and responsible for every bullet fired at a civilian in Syria. He will be tried and brought to justice, sooner or later." The White House dismissed the president's comments as "just not credible".
• Syria watcher Joshua Landis, considered by some to be sympathetic to the regime, said Assad's defiance suggests the struggle to oust him will be lengthy. Discussing Assad's ABC interview on his blog, Landis wrote:
Whether he remains convinced of his rectitude, whether his primary motivation is to hang on to power, or whether he is simply frightened of the consequences of yielding authority to his opponents, Assad gave no indication that he is having second thoughts about his position or is ready to yield. One must conclude that Syria's fight will be a long one.• The renegade Free Syrian Army is chaotically organised and faces defections within its own ranks, according to dissident and blogger Ammar Abdulhamid. In his latest post he pointed to video clips of defected soldiers declaring allegiance to rival militias.
For the FSA is a not a centralised entity, and, in reality, Colonel Al-Ass'aad has nothing to do with most operations that take place in the name of the FSA, except for those carried out by defectors crossing borders from Turkey and Lebanon into Syria. In most other cases, decision-making is left to local commanders, who may or may not be affiliated with the FSA, and their units. Credits are given to the FSA only after the operations are carried out.
Egypt
• Egypt's ruling generals have put themselves on a collision course with the country's new parliament, which is set to be dominated by Islamists, after declaring that MPs will not have the final say over the drafting of a fresh constitution. Major General Mokhtar el-Mulla said the upcoming parliament would not be representative of all Egyptian people, and that those appointed to write a fresh constitution must also be approved by the interim cabinet anda newly-created "advisory council" of intellectuals, civilian politicians and media personalities, both of which fall under the control of the generals. Human rights activist Negad el-Borai told the New York Times that the generals were trying to stage a coup.
• Two US companies have shipped crowd control munitions and teargas to Egypt – one firm repeatedly – in the midst of violent and often lethal crackdowns on protesters by security forces, according to an Amnesty International investigation. The human rights group has asked for Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, to stop granting export licences for teargas and other munitions, pending an investigation into its misuse by Egyptian forces.
• Friends of the blogger and activist Alaa Abd El Fattah secretly filmed his latest court appearance this week, the New York Times's Lede blog reports. The video shows Fattah with his wife, mother and friends in court on Monday.
Yemen
• Yemen's vice-president has issued a decree creating a national unity government to take over from that of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, the BBC reports. Members of Saleh's Congress Party will head the ministries of defence, foreign affairs and oil, while opposition politicians will lead the ministries of interior, finance and information.Bahrain
• Bahraini security forces firing tear gas and rubber bullets clashed with hundreds of anti-government protesters near Pearl Square. There were no immediate reports of injuries. There were no immediate reports of injuries.Libya
• Mexico said it has broken up an international plot to smuggle a son of Muammar Gaddafi and his family into the country under false names and with false Mexican documents. The elaborate plan to bring Saadi Gaddafi to Mexico allegedly involved two Mexicans, a Canadian and a Danish suspect, the interior secretary, Alejandro Poiré, said.guardian.co.uk © 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
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