US-Morocco Treaty of Friendship: Longest standing treaty in American history

More than two centuries later, treaty continues to define special relationship between two of oldest, closest allies across Atlantic.

Middle East Online

Strategic relationship WASHINGTON, DC— Today marks the 225th anniversary of the US Senate’s 1787 vote to ratify what is now the longest standing treaty in America’s history — the US-Morocco "Treaty of Peace and Friendship." More than two centuries later, the treaty continues to define the special and strategic relationship between two of the oldest and closest allies across the Atlantic. Formal relations between Morocco and the US began in 1777, when Morocco became the first country to recognize the American colonies as a nation. As George Washington and his troops took the field to make good on the Continental Congress' Declaration of Independence, the Sultan of Morocco, Mohammed III, granted American ships recognition and safe passage through the Straits of Gibraltar and in Moroccan ports. Negotiations began in 1783 on a formal treaty of commerce and friendship, which was signed in 1786 by John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. On July 18, 1787, Congress ratified the treaty, which set forth the framework for diplomatic relations, assurances of non-hostility, access to markets on "most favoured nation" basis, and protection of US ships from attack by foreign vessels in Moroccan waters. As US President in 1789, George Washington wrote Mohammed III to thank him for Morocco's support: "This young nation, just recovering from the waste and desolation of a long war, has not, as yet, had time to acquire riches by agriculture or commerce. But our soil is beautiful, and our people industrious and we have reason to flatter ourselves that we shall gradually become useful to our friends. I shall not cease to promote every measure that may conduce to the friendship and harmony which so happily subsist between your empire and [the US]." Since then, the 235-year Morocco-US relationship has continued to advance: - During World War I, Morocco backed the Allied forces and Moroccan soldiers fought alongside US Marines in France; - During World War II, Morocco hosted the Casablanca Conference in 1943 to plan Allied strategy in Europe; - In 1963, Morocco was among the first countries to invite the Peace Corps to assist in development projects; - Morocco is one of only 20 countries with a Free Trade Agreement with the US, signed in 2004; - Morocco is also a steadfast ally against terrorism and continues to be an important leader for reform in the North Africa and Middle East region.

Egyptian military uses soccer ban to undermine ultras

Military’s effort to sideline soccer as national past time is in stark contrast to ousted Mubarak’s use of game to enhance his image, distract public attention from politics.

Middle East Online

By James M. Dorsey - Singapore

Port Said continues to haunt military Egypt’s military rulers are employing a security-inspired sustained ban on professional soccer as a tool to undermine radical, highly-politicized and street battle-hardened soccer fans who have emerged as the North African country’s most militant opponents of the armed force’s grip on politics. The military’s effort to sideline soccer as a national past time is in stark contrast to ousted President Hosni Mubarak’s use of the game to enhance his image and distract public attention from politics. If soccer overshadowed politics under Mr. Mubarak, politics dwarfs soccer under his successors. So far the military supported by the interior ministry appears to be succeeding in its goal of isolating militant soccer fan groups. It is however a strategy that could backfire. For one, public focus on politics means closer scrutiny of public officials and enhanced pressure on both the military and Egypt’s newly elected president, Muslim Brother Mohammed Morsi, to perform in terms of rebuilding Egypt’s economy and moving the country further down the road towards democracy. The military, the interior ministry, soccer officials and militant soccer fans have in recent days been locked into a complex dance focused on the authorities’ refusal to lift a five month ban on professional soccer and the aftermath of the death of 74 fans in February in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said. It is a dance that in coming days could erupt into renewed street violence in what the security forces would hope is the final showdown and militants would seek to turn into a second revolution that forces the soldiers to return to their barracks. The hardening of positions on both sides of the divide comes as Mr. Morsi despite having won Egypt’s first post-Mubarak presidential election with 52 per cent of the vote finds himself between a rock and a hard place. Egypt's military, which succeeded Mr. Mubarak with a mandate to guide the country towards free and fair elections effectively pre-empted the Brotherhood victory by giving itself broad legislative and executive authority on the eve of the election. The move has left Mr. Mors primarily dependent on public support in his tug of war with the military. The interior ministry’s refusal to lift the ban on soccer imposed in the wake of the Port Said incident as long as enhanced security, including electronic gates, airport-style scanners and security cameras have not been installed in Egyptian stadiums is not unreasonable. Yet, it ignores the fact that security forces stood aside during the brawl in Port Said in what was widely believed to be an effort that got out of hand to teach a lesson to the militant soccer fans for their continued opposition to the military. It also fails to take account of the fact that the military has refrained from reforming the interior ministry and its security forces who are Egypt’s most distrusted institutions because of their role as enforcers of the repressive Mubarak regime. The military’s exploitation of increased post-Mubarak public focus on politics at the expense of soccer is aided by the poor performance of Egypt’s national team in recent African tournaments. Egypt last month failed to qualify for the Africa Cup finals in a crucial match against the Central African Republic just as Mr. Morsi was being sworn in as his country’s first democratically elected leader. Media focus on Mr. Morsi rather than the soccer match was in stark contrast to an incident in 2006 when the Mubarak regime successfully focused the media on Egyptian soccer rather than on the sinking of a ferry in which 1,100 people died. Public sentiment at the time blamed government corruption for their deaths. “The balance is being reset,” Egypt Independent quoted American University of Cairo political scientist Emad Shahin as saying. In fact, the role of militant soccer fans in the overthrow of Mr. Mubarak and the vicious street battles with security forces in which hundreds were killed and thousands wounded since his downfall that culminated in the Port Said incident have transformed soccer from a debate about sports to one about politics. That was reinforced by the government’s firing of the Mubarak era board of the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) in the wake of Port Said. Three competing lists – members of the Mubarak-era board, Islamist players and independent reformers – are campaigning for the EFA’s elections scheduled for late August. “This was the first time in the history of Egyptian football that victims have fallen after a football match. This match has fanned the flames of conflict between revolutionaries and the SCAF,” the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, said Ayman Abou Ayed, head of state-owned Al Ahram newspaper’s sports department. Public empathy for the militant soccer fans was already diminishing by the time Port Said happened. Many Egyptians have become protest weary and yearn for stability that would allow their country to return to a path of economic growth. Mr. Ayed argues that the violence coupled with the suspension of the premier league and the banning of spectators from international matches reduced public interest in what had been a national passion. The hardening of positions and the potential for renewed violence became evident earlier this week when a group of militant supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahly SC whose members died in the Port Said incident were attacked by unidentified men armed with shotguns, glass shards and rocks as they marched from their club’s headquarters to the Journalists’ Syndicate. Militant supporters of Al Ahly arch rival Al Zamalek said days before the attack that they had suggested ways to reduce violence in the stadiums but had received no response from the authorities. In a statement, the militants warned that their approach towards upcoming matches would be determined by how the interior ministry justified its continued ban on spectators attending games. Zamalek and Al Ahly, whose derbies prior to Mr. Mubarak’s downfall were ranked among the world’s most violent, are scheduled to clash on Sunday in Cairo in an African club championship match. James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

MUJAO succeeds in dictating its terms: Hostages in exchange for Islamists

Qaeda-linked jihadist group releases three European aid workers in exchange for three Islamists.

Middle East Online

Their release is a victory for jihadists OUAGADOUGOU - Three European aid workers released in Mali after being kidnapped by an Al-Qaeda-linked jihadist group were freed in exchange for three Islamists, a negotiator said on Thursday. "There was a compensation, there were releases for releases," a member of the negotiation team told reporters, adding that the three hostages had boarded planes home after arriving in Burkina Faso earlier in the day. The three -- a Spanish man and woman, Enric Gonyalons and Ainhoa Fernandez Rincon, and an Italian woman, Rossella Urru -- were described as "well" although Gonyalons had been deliberately shot and wounded by one of his captors during his captivity. "The (Spanish) man is wounded, there was a mujahideen (fighter) who fired at him deliberately, he is limping a little but it is OK," he said. The previously unknown Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) claimed responsibility for the aid workers' kidnap in October 2011, saying it was an offshoot of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The group on Wednesday announced their release and said a ransom had been paid. In May MUJAO had demanded the release of two Sahrawis arrested by Mauritania for their role in the kidnapping, as well as 30 million euros ($37 million) for the hostages' freedom, threatening to kill the Spanish man if their demands were not met. "We do not know if any ransoms were paid... that is between them (the kidnappers) and the countries concerned," the negotiator added. The hostages were abducted from a Sahrawi refugee camp in Tindouf, Algeria, housing people from the disputed Western Saharan territory that abuts Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria. In Nouakchott, online news agency Alakhbar reported that among Islamist prisoners exchanged for the hostages was a Sahrawi called Memine Ould Oufkir, one of those arrested in the wake of the kidnapping. MUJAO said last week it had freed three of seven Algerian diplomats kidnapped during the Islamist seizure of the northern Mali city of Gao in late March. The group, along with the Islamist Ansar Dine (Defenders of Faith) and Tuareg separatist rebels, overran northern Mali in the chaos that followed a March 22 coup in the southern capital of Bamako. However the jihadists have since forced the Tuareg fighters, who wanted an independent secular state, out of key positions as they seek to implement strict Islamic law. MUJAO holds the city of Gao while Ansar Dine has exerted its control in Timbuktu, whipping unmarried couples, smokers and drinkers and destroying ancient World Heritage shrines it considers idolatrous. Both Islamist groups have stated ties to AQIM and other jihadist groups on the continent, raising fears that the vast region could become a safe haven for extremist groups. AQIM has for years carried out attacks, kidnapped foreigners and been involved in drug and human trafficking in the Sahel. The group is currently holding six French hostages -- two geologists kidnapped last November in northern Mali and four kidnapped in September 2010 from Niger. There are also Swedish, Dutch and South African hostages taken last November in an attack on Timbuktu in which a German was killed.

Egypt court leaves parliament future hanging in legal labyrinth

Administrative court says it has no jurisdiction to rule on two cases that determine fate of parliament.

Middle East Online

Appeals has left parliament stuck in limbo CAIRO - Egypt's administrative court said on Thursday it had no jurisdiction to rule on two cases that determine the fate of parliament, leaving the future of the house hanging in a legal labyrinth. Judge Abdel Salam al-Naggar, the head of Cairo's administrative court, referred to the Supreme Constitutional Court an appeal against a presidential decree to reinstate the dissolved parliament. It was also looking into the legality of a constitutional declaration issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces -- which ruled Egypt after Hosni Mubarak was ousted last year-- which granted the military sweeping powers including legislative control. Parliament has been at the centre of a power struggle between the military which oversaw Egypt's transition from Mubarak's rule, and Islamist President Mohamed Morsi who was sworn in last month. The political standoff between the two parties is being played out in the courts amid a dizzying array of legal rulings and appeals that has left parliament stuck in limbo. Earlier this month, Morsi ordered parliament to convene, in defiance of a military decision to disband the house in line with a ruling by the Supreme Constitutional Court. But on July 11, the top court annulled the decree, a ruling that Morsi vowed to respect. Morsi's decree was applauded by supporters who believed the court's decision to disband parliament was political, but it set off a fire storm of criticism from opponents who accused him of overstepping his authority. According to the country's interim constitution, drafted by the military generals who took charge after Mubarak's overthrow, the military assumed the dissolved parliament's powers. Morsi's decision was seen as an opening shot in a power struggle between Egypt's first civilian leader and the Mubarak-appointed generals who wanted to retain broad powers even after they transferred control on June 30. The SCAF consists of generals appointed by Mubarak, as was the head of the constitutional court which annulled parliament because it found that certain articles of the law governing its election invalid. Critics said the decision was politically motivated.

Tanks roll on Damascus as violence reigns

Heavy fighting grips capital with state source saying "all weapons will be used to finish off terrorists" by Ramadan. Last Modified: 19 Jul 2012 21:28

Government troops have stormed a Damascus district with tanks for the first time, five days on from the outbreak of
fierce clashes in the capital, a UK-based rights group has said.

"The army stormed the Qaboon district with a large number of tanks," said Rami Abdel Rahman, of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), on Thursday.

"This is the first time that tanks enter a Damascus district," Rahman said.

The army's move stoked fears of an imminent massacre in the western quarter of the capital, scene of clashes over the past five days, the SOHR said.

The intensity of ongoing fighting in Damascus was underscored on Wednesday by a devastating bomb attack at the heart of Syria's senior command that killed at least three of President Bashar al-Assad's top brass

Earlier on Thursday, a security source told the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity that the army would show no restraint in its operations.

"These extremely violent clashes should continue in the next 48 hours to cleanse Damascus of terrorists by the time Ramadan begins" on Friday, the source said, referring to the Muslim holy month.

The developments came a day after three top regime officials were killed in an unprecedented attack in the National Security headquarters in Damascus, which was claimed by the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

"After the attack, [the army] has decided to use all the weapons in its possession to finish the terrorists off," the security source said.

Violence killed at least 107 people across Syria on Thursday, the SOHR said, and forced hundreds of Damascus residents to flee their homes for safer neighbourhoods.

Fighting rages

Earlier on Thursday, opposition fighters attacked the main police headquarters in Damascus on Thursday, a witness said.

In-depth coverage of escalating violence across Syria

"Gunfire has been intense for the past hour. It is now dying down but the streets around the police command remain empty," a resident of Qanawat, an old central district where the Damascus Province Police Headquarters is located, told Reuters by phone.
Intense fighting between the opposition and government forces also raged in a half-dozen areas of the Syrian capital Damascus.
Columns of black smoke rose over Damascus on Thursday as troops shelled Qaboon and Barzeh, while fighting raged in al-Midan and Zahira and loud explosions were heard in Mashrou-Dumar, said the Syrian Local Co-ordination Committees.
Violence also erupted in Ikhlas neighbourhood near the government headquarters after rebels attacked forces loyal to Assad, who have deployed armoured vehicles, attack helicopters and increased roadblocks across the city.
Rebels fired rocket-propelled grenades at a police station in the Jdeidet Artouz area, killing at least five officers, the SOHR said.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr, reporting from Beirut, said many people believed the latest developments had brought the Syrian conflict to a turning point.
"The Damascus fighting is now in its fifth day, getting close to power base of the Syrian president," our correspondent said. "The prestige of the regime has been shattered. Losing control of Damascus [means] the regime is slowly losing its grip over the country."
More than 200 people, mostly civilians, were killed on Wednesday, including 38 in Damascus, where rebels are pressing an all-out offensive, according to the SOHR.

Wednesday's bombing killed Defence Minister General Daoud Rajha, Assad's brother-in-law Assef Shawkat and General Hassan Turkmani, head of the regime's crisis cell on the uprising, state media said.
Among those wounded were Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar and General Hisham Ikhtiyar, head of national security.
Conflicting accounts have emerged of who carried out the attack on Wednesday and how it was perpetrated.

Patty Culhane reports on the UN's next steps

Syrian state media did not air any images of the blast, as in previous explosions that hit Damascus in the last two months.
Within hours the government named Major General Fahad Jassim Feraj as defence minister, the state news agency SANA reported.
The attack was claimed by the FSA, although another group, the Brigade of Islam, also said it was responsible.
The rebels said the attack, part of Operation Damascus Volcano launched on Monday, "is the first in a series ... aimed at bringing down Assad and the pillars and symbols of the regime, whether civilian or military".
State media initially said it was a "suicide bombing" before apparently retracting and calling it a "terrorist attack".

Spain police clash with austerity protesters

Police use rubber bullets and arrests several people in Madrid as protesters take to the streets across the country. Last Modified: 20 Jul 2012 02:29

Protests against the new austerity cuts have been taking place on a daily basis in Spain [AFP]

Spanish police have fired rubber bullets and charged protesters in central Madrid after a huge demonstration against economic crisis measures. Thick smoke hung in the air early on Friday from plastic bins set alight by protestors chased by police, who hit them with batons when some tried to reach the heavily-guarded parliament at the end of a mostly peaceful march. AFP reporters at the scene said dozens of protesters lingered, some throwing bottles at police, near the Puerta del Sol, the big square at the heart of the city where a march of hundreds of thousands wound up late Thursday. A police official said that officers arrested seven people and six others were injured. Earlier, tens of thousands of public employees, trade union members and other Spaniards have marching in 80 Spanish cities to protest the latest batch of austerity measures approved by the government. Follow our comprehensive Euro Crisis spotlight coverage The ruling conservative Popular Party used its majority in parliament to push through the measures on Thursday. They include a rise in sales taxes and a wage cut for civil servants. Workers yelled in anger branding the crisis measures "robbery". "Hands up, this is a robbery!" protesters bellowed in Madrid, where a sea of demonstrators crammed the avenues of the city centre. Unions had earlier called for the more than 80 demonstrations across the country in the latest and biggest in an almost daily series of protests this month. A sustained string of protests erupted after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy last week announced the new measures, aiming to save $80bn in order to slash the public deficit. Smaller protests, organised largely via online social networks, have occurred daily since the latest austerity measures were announced on July 11, with some workers taking to the streets during their morning coffee break. Hundreds of protesters, including fire-fighters wearing their helmets and police in black T-shirts, have marched through the streets of Madrid, blocking traffic and chanting. 'No money'  Cristobal Mindoro, Spain's budget minister, defended the measures on Thursday, saying they were needed to lower Spain's borrowing costs. Under pressure from the European Union to stabilize Spain's public finances, the conservative government also cut unemployment benefits and raised the sales tax, with the upper limit rising from 18 to 21 per cent. "There is no money in the coffers to pay for public services. We are making reforms that will allow us to better finance ourselves," he said. Spain had to offer investors sharply higher interest rates on Thursday to raise $3.Ban in debt auctions with maturities of two, five and seven years. The higher rates suggest investors remain worried over the country's ability to repay its debts as it struggles with its second recession in four years and an unemployment rate of over 24 per cent. Critics say the government's new austerity measures will worsen economic conditions for ordinary people. "The new cuts harm the weakest sectors of society without one single measure that involves any effort by companies and the highest earners," the COCO said in a statement. 'Final blow' Unions have called for the protests to be peaceful but clashes broke out on the fringes of some demonstrations in Madrid last week, including one major march by striking coal miners.678 "They have already lowered and frozen our salary and this is the final blow," said Ines Corned, 44, a worker in the justice sector, protesting in Madrid on Tuesday. "These measures they are taking will not stimulate consumption and will not create jobs," said Corned. Spain is due this month to become the fourth eurozone country, after Greece, Ireland and Portugal, to get bailout funds in the current crisis when it receives the first loan for its banks. Eurozone leaders are expected to finalise the deal in a telephone conference on Friday.

Source: Agencies

Syria conflict: Rebels seize Turkey, Iraq border posts

Video was posted on the internet of rebels defacing a poster of President Assad at the Bab al-Hawa crossing

Syrian rebels have captured a number of positions on the country's borders with Turkey and Iraq.

A senior Iraqi official said all the crossings on Syria's eastern frontier had been seized. At one point, two Turkish posts were also in rebel hands.
The push came a day after a bomb claimed the lives of three senior defence officials in Damascus.
At the UN, negotiations are under way on extending the mandate of the observer mission in Syria,
The mandate for the mission is due to expire on Friday.
There are almost 300 UN observers in Syria, but the mission suspended most of its monitoring activity in June, because of the risk from increasing violence.
The US says it might consider a final brief extension of the monitors work, but warned that it could not pin its policy on an unarmed mission.
The UK is said to be proposing an extension for a "final 30 days".
As the situation in Syria becomes more unpredictable and violent, the diplomacy in New York is lagging behind events on the ground, says the BBC's Laura Trevelyan at the UN.
Escalating battle The rebels, perhaps sensing that the regime was too preoccupied with the escalating battle for the capital, stormed all the posts on the Iraqi border, the BBC's Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says.

The major Abu Kamal crossing on the Euphrates river in the east was captured after a clash with government forces, opposition activists said.
More than 20 Syrian soldiers and their commander were killed when a remote army outpost in the far north-east was attacked, Associated Press news agency reported.
Iraq's government, seen as sympathetic to President Bashar al-Assad, has threatened to shut its side of the border and one official told Reuters news agency that it was closing the Abu Kamal crossing.
On the frontier with Turkey, too, rebels were said to have taken control of two posts, at Bab al-Hawa and Jarablus.
Video from the Bab al-Hawa crossing in Idlib province soon emerged of rebels defacing a portrait of President Assad, but they later reportedly withdrew from the position.
First images For four days, rebels have been involved in clashes in areas of the capital as they push their "Damascus volcano" operation against Syrian armed forces.

Damascus-based activist Hassan describes how people are too afraid to venture outside

The deaths of three top security officials has led to a mobilisation of government troops in an attempt to drive the rebels out of the city.
The president's brother-in-law, the defence minister and head of the government's crisis team were killed by a bomb as they attended a meeting at the national security headquarters.
The first images of President Assad since the attack have appeared, largely ending rumours he might have been hurt.
The footage appeared to show Gen Fahd Jassim al-Furayj, chief of staff of the armed forces, being sworn into his new post as defence minister.
Tanks and armoured vehicles were reported to have moved into Qaboun on Thursday, close to the centre of Damascus.
There were heavy casualties, activists said, as a result of an army bombardment of Zamalka in the eastern outskirts of Damascus.

Analysis

Laura Trevelyan BBC News, New York

The mood inside the Security Council chamber was acrimonious after China and Russia vetoed the resolution. Britain's ambassador accused the two nations of protecting a brutal regime by their actions. America's ambassador said the council had failed utterly in the most important task on its agenda.
China's ambassador denounced what he called an uneven resolution which placed pressure on one side, while Russia's representative claimed the resolution would have opened the path to military involvement in Syria's affairs.
Now negotiations are under way to try to extend the mandate of the UN monitoring mission in Syria which is due to expire on Friday.
The mission is supposed to monitor a ceasefire and support a political process - neither of which exist. So the UK is proposing a 30 day "final" extension.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the number of fatalities across the country on Thursday at 250.

'Indefensible' The pace of events in Syria was in marked contrast to the diplomatic stalemate at the UN Security Council, where Russia and China vetoed a Western resolution calling for tougher sanctions on Damascus.
Under the Western-backed plan, the Damascus government would have been threatened with non-military sanctions under Chapter Seven of the UN Charter if it failed to move troops and heavy weapons from populated areas.
But the use of Chapter Seven paved the way for "external military involvement in Syrian domestic affairs", Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin argued.
The UK, US and France said the UN had failed the people of Syria and UK Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned the use of the veto as "inexcusable and indefensible".