Kuwait Top Court Nullifies Parliamentary Elections
Naharnet/ 20 June 2012/Kuwait's constitutional court on Wednesday declared February's legislative polls in which the opposition swept to victory illegal and reinstated the previous pro-government parliament, state media said. Leading opposition MP Mussallam al-Barrak described the verdict as "a coup against the constitution" and called for the opposition to take a united stand.
"The court declared that the emiri decree that called for the 2012 election was unconstitutional and ordered reinstating the previous assembly," the state-run KUNA news agency reported.
Rulings by the Gulf state's highest court are final and cannot be challenged. Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah issued a decree in early December dissolving the parliament following youth-led street protests calling for reforms and for the sacking of former prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad al-Ahmad al-Sabah. A few days later, the emir issued another decree inviting Kuwaitis to elect a new parliament on February 2. The court ruled that the second decree was "unconstitutional,” thus nullifying the results of the general elections in which the opposition scored an impressive victory.
The previous parliament was controlled by a pro-government majority. Agence France Presse.

French Police End Bank Hostage-Taking, Detain 'Qaida' Gunman
Naharnet/ 20 June 2012/French police stormed a bank in Toulouse on Wednesday, arresting a gunman with psychiatric problems who claimed to be an al-Qaida militant and freeing his two hostages after a seven-hour siege. The 26-year-old, who had taken four bank employees hostage in the morning in the same area where serial killer Mohamed Merah lived and was shot dead by police in March, was wounded in the stomach in the assault, police sources said. The two other hostages, both women, had been released earlier, and no police officers were injured in the operation, which took place at 4:45 pm local time (1445 GMT), police said. Nearly seven hours earlier the man had entered the CIC bank, demanded money then fired a shot and taken the bank manager and other staff hostage, saying he wanted to negotiate with the elite RAID police unit that killed Merah.
Before the police went in local prosecutor Michel Valet said the gunman "wishes to make it known that this is not at all about money and that his motives are based on religious convictions."
"We don't yet know if this is a robbery that went wrong or if (the hostage taking) is a premeditated act," a police source had told Agence France Presse. The man called himself "Boumaza" and had a criminal record, police said. Another source said he was schizophrenic and "may have stopped his treatment". He was "put in a foster home when he was little and suffers from rage and fears the outside world," his sister told AFP over the telephone. She said he was not very religious, adding, "we went to nightclubs and drank alcohol." He entered the bank at around 10:00 am and insistently asked for money but staff did not take him seriously, police told AFP. He then produced a gun and took everyone hostage.
Parents of pupils at a nearby school were sent a text message telling them to pick up their children, witnesses said, and rapid-intervention GIPN police units were dispatched from southern cities Bordeaux and Marseille. The RAID unit that shot Merah after he went on a killing spree is based in Paris, hundreds of kilometers to the north. The CIC bank and Merah's former flat are within 500 meters of each other in Toulouse's Cote Pavee neighborhood, east of the city center. Merah was killed at the end of a 32-hour siege of his flat after he shot dead seven people -- three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school in Toulouse -- in a wave of killings that shocked the country. Toulouse, a city of around 500,000 people, lived in fear while police hunted the killer before he was identified as Merah. His neighborhood has struggled to shake off the stigma of being associated with him. "We're going through the same thing as three months ago," Maria Gonzalez, a mother with two children who could not go home because of the police cordon, said Wednesday before the incident was resolved. "We used to be worry-free in the neighborhood, but since the Mohamed Merah problem, we're worried. It's happening again, it's starting to scare me," she said.
Merhah, 23, who claimed to be acting for al-Qaida, filmed himself carrying out his attacks and reportedly confessed to police before he was shot dead. A petty criminal of Algerian origin, Merah reportedly spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan but it is not known if he attended militant training camps.Riding a powerful scooter, Merah shot dead three French troops in cold blood, reportedly because of French military interventions abroad. He told negotiators the Jewish school killings were to avenge Palestinian children killed by Israel. French intelligence was heavily criticized for failing to keep tabs on Merah despite the fact he travelled to known hotbeds of militant Islam. France has the largest Muslim population in Europe. Agence France Presse.

Fikra Forum Interviews New Head of Syrian National Council
Fikra Forum
June 20, 2012
On June 15, 2012, the newly elected head of the Syrian National Council (SNC), Abdulbaset Sieda, gave Fikra Forum his first extended Western media interview since assuming the post on June 10. The interview was conducted by Skype, in Arabic, by Fikra Forum editor Lauren Emerson and contributors Maya Gebeily and Jehad Saleh. Key points include: 1. Sieda asserts that the SNC does not lead the FSA, and that this could lead to the "disorganized and haphazard use of weapons" and an "uncontrollable … security coup," as he says has occurred in Libya. 2. He says it would be fine to "coordinate" with the Kurdish opposition and others, rather than try and bring them back into the SNC. 3. He says there could be dialogue with regime elements "with no blood on their hands,” but only concerning "the timing and process of the fall of the regime." 4. He denies that the SNC should do anything to demonstrate its independence from the MB, which is "an essential faction of the Syrian opposition."
The following is a translated transcript of this interview; it can also be viewed on the Fikra Forum website at http://fikraforum.org/?p=2315&lang=en.
The original Arabic can be found at http://fikraforum.org/?p=2318&lang=ar.
Fikra Forum (FF): It seems that the restructuring of the Syrian National Council (SNC) is an enormous project that the council is working on right now. What is the SNC doing currently to respond to developments on the ground and the quickly-deteriorating situation in Syria? How does the SNC get information about these developments? Finally, how does it plan on facing and leading these developments, as opposed to reacting to them like the rest of the world?
Abdulbaset Sieda: Thank you very much for this question. Of course, we have announced our plan more than once. First, we are in the process of rearranging the Executive Committee of the Syrian National Council (SNC). We are trying to make the SNC’s committees much more effective through restructuring the council’s hierarchy. We have created a committee, which met today in Istanbul, because time is running out and we’re in a race against it.
We will make the processes of the committees much more effective, so that the council can accomplish its goals in an effective way. In addition, we are in communication with the various factions of the Syrian opposition in order to get them to join the Council or coordinate with us to face the regime.
In addition, we will communicate in order to deepen our ties with the internal opposition movement and to strengthen this movement. Also, we must coordinate our relationship and organize with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) so that it can become more effective and able to defend Syrian civilians.
FF: How does the SNC plan on coordinating with the Free Syrian Army (FSA)? Is the SNC the political leader for the FSA?
Sieda: The SNC is not the political leadership [of the FSA]; however, it is the political leadership in the sense that the political representative of the Syrian people is in the SNC. The FSA was formed before the SNC, and we [the SNC] did not take part in the decision to establish the FSA.
Nevertheless, we seek to organize the relationship we have with them so that the military situation can be organized and disciplined. In a situation like the Syrian situation, disorganized and haphazard use of weapons would be uncontrollable and would lead to a security coup like the one from which the Libyans have suffered after their revolution.
FF: Have there been any pledges from the international community to support the FSA with weapons, especially now that the regime has increased its military operations and has resorted to massacring the Syrian people?
Sieda: These matters are specific to the professionals. To this effect, we have a communications office which follows these issues; therefore, this is a matter for the professionals.
Your first question has to do with the opposition’s factions and how we coordinate with them. We are in communication with the majority of these factions and we work with them so that we can reach a shared vision about the features of the transitional period and Syria’s political future -- in a way that reassures Syrians, regional powers, and the international community. We are looking into this issue with the different factions, one of which is the Kurdish National Council. Of course, we invite these factions to join the SNC and to participate in it. Some factions and some political sides do not want to join, and prefer to simply coordinate with us. We are fine. That is with regard to dialogue with the factions of the opposition. With regards to dialogue with the regime, this is an issue that has come up partly in the past. For a while now, we have said that dialogue with the regime is no longer possible. The only possible form of dialogue would be negotiations about the timing and process of the fall of the regime. This dialogue would only be with those that did not stain their hands with the blood of the Syrians or did not order the killing of Syrian civilians.
With regards to the naming of a transitional leader, I have touched on this in an earlier interview in which I said that the Annan plan is written on the basis that Assad would hand over his powers to his deputy Farouk al-Shaar. However, it appears that journalists sometimes want additional details, and when they cannot find them, they fabricate them.
FF: Are there any efforts to communicate with parts of the regime, the military leadership, the intelligence service, or the old guard so that they may join the revolution?
Sieda: Of course, these are highly technical and confidential issues, which fall under the domain of the appropriate professionals in the communications department.
FF: The SNC has been highly criticized recently with regards to the rumors that the council is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). What are you personally doing (and what is the SNC’s Executive Committee doing) to combat these rumors and to assure the international community and the internal opposition that the SNC is in fact not dominated by the MB?
Sieda: The Muslim Brotherhood is an essential faction of the Syrian opposition. It was oppressed at the hands of Assad’s father’s regime, and there existed an order to hang anyone who was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is not an unusual case, as it has precedents in Syrian history; for this reason, we affirm that this is an Arab group that has been oppressed and that today is an essential part of the Syrian National Council. However, on the other hand, we see the Damascus Declaration, secular forces, liberals, revolutionary movements… The Muslim Brotherhood, of course, has its role in the SNC, they helped establish it just like other forces. However, to prove that this council is outside the control of the Muslim Brotherhood and to distance them from any committees or institutions... I believe that when we decided to ally ourselves with them, we did not enter on this basis.

Geagea demands government's resignation
June 20, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea called on Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet to resign as soon as possible given deteriorating security and economic conditions, adding that the National Dialogue is an attempt by the government to divert attention from its failures.
“The existing problems are the result of government paralysis and the makeup of the Cabinet; it is a pity we have to cover them up with dialogue,” Geagea told reporters at his residence in Meerab. “The swift decision that is needed is for the government to resign.” He also said that whatever the alternative, it cannot be worse than the current Cabinet.
Geagea, who refrained from joining last week’s newly revived National Dialogue, reiterated his position with regard to intra-Lebanese talks, saying: “No one is against dialogue in principle but some are using dialogue to cover up the reality we are living in every day.”He added that since the Dialogue was first launched seven years ago, Hezbollah has refused to present a vision of how it would disarm, which leaves him skeptical that the resistance party would agree to disarmament during this year’s talks. President Michel Sleiman has said that a national defense strategy aimed at benefiting from Hezbollah’s arms will be discussed in the next round of talks. Hezbollah has voiced its readiness to discuss any strategy in this regard.
The LF leader also spoke about the deteriorating security situation in the Palestinian camps and along the border with Syria as well as increasingly meager electricity rations in the country.
He slammed the Cabinet as well as Energy Minister Gebran Bassil for failing to improve the electricity sector, describing power cuts as a national crisis and saying the situation “has proven far worse than expected.”Residents across the country have been blocking roads to protest harsh power rationing, particularly in south Lebanon and the east of the country, where power cuts have reached up to 21 hours daily. Geagea also responded to comments by March 8 figures repeatedly blaming previous governments for the worsening electricity situation, saying: "There is no doubt there has been negligence [by previous governments] but does this mean that there is no possibility for a solution?""If the decision is up to the government, then you are the decision-makers," Geagea said, addressing his rivals in the March 8 coalition. As for the economic situation, Geagea said lack of trust in the government has discouraged business people from investing in the country and that public debt is still on the rise as the Cabinet struggles to pass the 2012 state budget.

Israel's Army chief: We'll meet any threat, any time
Yoav Zitun Latest Update: 06.20.12/Ynetnews
Gaza terrorists fire over 50 rockets at Israel's south throughout Wednesday; IAF targets two terror hubs in northern Strip. Gantz: Any attempt to infringe on Israel's security will be met with force . IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz commented Wednesday on the current round of escalation between Israel and the Gaza-based terror groups, saying that the IDF will "meet any attempt to infringe on Israel's security with force.
Gaza terrorists fired close to 60 rockets at Israel's western Negev communities since Wednesday morning. The current round of escalation has seen roughly 100 rockets fired at Israel. "We will meet any threat, any time," Gantz said. The Air Force conducted two strikes on terror hubs in Gaza Strip in retaliation to the rocket fire.
The first strike targeted the terror cell responsible for Monday's attack on the Israel-Egypt border. The IDF reported that at least one terrorist – affiliated with Islamic Jihad – was killed, and another was severely wounded. The second strike targeted two terror hubs in northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian sources reported that the strike hit the Nuseirat refugee camp, adding that there were no wounded.
The IDF Home Front Command has instructed residents of the area to remain in proximity to shelters and has temporarily barred any public gatherings of over 500 people.
On Wednesday morning, a rocket salvo on the South resulted in a direct hit on a house in Sdot Negev Regional Council. No wounded were reported, but the structure sustained significant damage.
Gaza-based terrorists have been incessantly shelling western Negev communities since Tuesday afternoon, when over 40 Qassam rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel in the span of several hours

Tardy IDF intelligence, slow responses aggravated Gaza clash. Egypt cuts military contact
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis June 20, 2012/ At a particularly sensitive moment in Israeli-Egyptian relations, Israel’s military leaders were caught napping by the June 18 terrorist attack from Sinai on the southern Route 10, in which an Israeli fence team worker was killed. Because they were too slow to catch on to the identity of the perpetrators, those military chiefs misdirected their reprisals at the wrong quarters and so sparked a three-day missile-for-air strike cycle in Gaza.
That slowness of uptake was evident at the different military and defense levels of responsibility - the field command, the Southern Command and the general staff. Above all, the forces under the Southern Command were not ready for action although their sector abutting the Gaza Strip and the Egyptian border of Sinai should have been on high alert.
It took three days and scores of missiles from the Gaza Strip before an Iron Dome missile defense battery was finally deployed Wednesday, June 20. The battery immediately intercepted a Grad missile before it exploded in the town of Netivot.
debkafile’s military sources trace the start of the downward turn of events to Monday, June 18. After word was received of a major roadside bomb-RPG-shooting attack on an Israeli team working on Route 10 on the Israel-Egyptian border fence and the death of Said Fashasha, the IDF made every possible mistake.
Instead of waiting for solid intelligence to come through on the terrorists’ identity, Israeli commanders lashed out in every direction.
An unidentified officer decided that the hand behind the attack was that of the Palestinian Jihad Islami. He may have been the same wise guy who attributed to Hamas the double Grad missile attack two days earlier on two southern locations, Ovdat and Mitzpeh Ramon. Some military sources “explained” to Israeli media that Hamas was shooting missiles on orders from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in order to heat up the Egyptian-Israeli border ahead of the second round of the presidential election.
This caused Israeli media to hare off in the wrong direction. Neither Hamas nor the Muslim Brotherhood was actually involved in either of those attacks, but since the information was not corrected, the misapprehension stood and generated more damage.
The field commanders concerned were not informed by the general staff or military intelligence that the Grad missiles in southern Israel were fired by al Qaeda from Sinai. This failure left the command chain in the field unprepared for follow-up attacks from the same quarter in Sinai. The deadly ambush on Route 10 two days later was therefore not linked to the earlier Grad missile fire.
The consequence of this lapse was that when the IDF decided to retaliate, it went after the wrong terrorists - Hamas and Jihad Islami in Gaza - so touching off a three-day missile blitz against a range of Israeli locations and military targets.As we reported Tuesday night, Hamas posted a message to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak through intelligence channels saying that it can’t stop shooting missiles at Israel as long as the IDF continues to strike targets in Gaza. “We had nothing to do with the attack on the Philadelphi Route 10 on Monday, and we’re certainly not looking for trouble with Cairo over military action from Sinai,” said Hamas.
The note, disclosed by debkafile’s intelligence and military sources, went on to say that IDF attacks on Hamas and Jihad Islami personnel were unwarranted since neither was involved in the Route 10 ambush. “If you stop attacking us, we’ll stop launching missiles at Israeli targets,” Hamas offered.
But the next day, IDF carried on striking targets in Gaza, so as not to be seen caving in to Hamas demands.
At the same time, the IDF and the various intelligence bodies, including the Shin Bet, finally put two and two together and correctly assigned the Route 10 attack to al Qaeda in Sinai. Wednesday, a targeted air strike over Rafah killed Ghaleb Ramlath and injured Muhammad Rashwan, two al Qaeda operatives in Gaza and Sinai, who were involved in that attack.
Israeli diplomacy around the episode was completely botched. When defense ministry officials invited Egyptian commanders at liaison offices in Sinai to cross into Israel and view the fragments of the Grad missiles, they refused. They said they did not believe Israel’s version of the episode and declined to be drawn by Israel into any sort of involvement.
Given the turmoil in Cairo, it should have been obvious to defense ministry “diplomats” that Egyptian army personnel would on no account risk being seen in the company of Israeli officers.
By now, the situation has become so bogged down that it is hard to see how the Gaza exchange of blows can be stopped.

U.K. envoy: Intl. community aims to shield Lebanon from Syria crisis
June 20, 2012/ The Daily Star
BEIRUT: U.K. ambassador to Lebanon Tom Fletcher said Wednesday that the international community will work to distance Lebanon from the crisis in neighboring Syria.
After his meeting with head of the Free Patriotic Movement MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh, Fletcher told reporters that the challenge for the international community today is to work diligently to protect Lebanon from the turmoil in Syria.  There has been growing fear that the situation in Syria has begun to influence its smaller neighbor, particularly following last month’s clashes in Tripoli, north Lebanon, between opponents and supporters of President Bashar Assad. In response to a question regarding a possible regional war, Fletcher said that the situation has not spun out of control and that the international community is expending great effort to prevent such a scenario. Fletcher also said that he discussed with Aoun international, regional and domestic developments, particularly efforts to continue the National Dialogue, which he said Britain welcomes.President Michel Sleiman re-launched a round of intra-Lebanese talks last week. Rival Lebanese agreed to distance Lebanon from regional conflicts and oppose the establishment of a buffer zone on its border with Syria.

Lebanese Islamists detained since 2007 released
June 19, 2012/ By Wassim Mroue The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Seven detained Lebanese Islamists were released from Roumieh Prison Tuesday as part of the judiciary's efforts to speed up the legal process of those arrested following the 2007 clashes between the Lebanese Army and a militant group in a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon. The released were identified as Ibrahim Qbayter, Ahmad Safarjalani, Mohammad Khaled, Jalal Metlej, Hussein Sahyoun, Abdel-Rahman al-Bayda, and Ahmad Ayubi.  Fourteen men were originally scheduled for release but the foreigners among them have to go through another process involving paperwork at General Security prior to their release. They are Palestinians Jihad al-Qadi, Musa Ismail and Mohammad Wehbi and Syrian Munjid Fahham. Two Lebanese, Ahmad al-Ater and Mahmoud Seif, will not be released either, due to cases unrelated to the 2007 clashes. Meanwhile, Lebanese Ahmad al-Ahmad still has three days to serve.  All the detainees were arrested for fighting or aiding fighters during the 2007 armed clashes between the Army and the militant group Fatah al-Islam. Relatives of the approximately 180 Islamist inmates in Lebanese prisons, have been protesting across the country, particularly in the northern city of Tripoli, demanding that the government speed up legal procedures. Sheikh Salem Rafiee will hold a reception at his Tripoli residence for the released Lebanese detainees.President Michel Sleiman expressed relief Tuesday over the judiciary's recent efforts and the resultant swift processing of the case of several detained Islamists. He also expressed the hope that the process would continue, thereby finalizing the accumulated cases of inmates and easing overpopulation in the country's prisons.

Big powers, Iran far apart at Moscow nuclear talks
June 19, 2012/By Justyna Pawlak, Yeganeh Torbati/Daily Star
Ashton meets with Jalili in Moscow.
MOSCOW: Six world powers and Iran made little progress Monday on the first of two days of talks on how to end a decadelong dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program and avert the threat of a new war in the Middle East. “We had an intense and tough exchange of views,” said Michael Mann, spokesman for European Union foreign policy head Catherine Ashton who leads the delegation on behalf of the six world powers: the United States, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.
Iran said before the talks began in Moscow that progress would be possible only if the powers acknowledged its right to enrich uranium, a process which Tehran says it uses only for peaceful purposes but which could also make weapons material. A series of U.N. Security Council resolutions since 2006 have demanded that Iran suspend all its enrichment-related activities due to concerns about the nature of the nuclear program.
The world powers, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council – all of which have nuclear weapons – plus Germany, said it was time for Tehran to do more to assure them it was not seeking the bomb. New U.S. and EU sanctions come into force in two weeks, Israel has threatened to bomb Iran if no solution to the dispute is found and oil markets are nervous over the prospect of intensifying regional tensions. “The main stumbling block is that the sides’ positions are rather difficult and tough to reconcile,” Sergei Ryabkov, a Russian deputy foreign minister and negotiator told reporters at the end of the first days of talks in a Moscow hotel.
Meanwhile, an Iranian diplomat also said: “Up to now the environment is not positive at all.”
One Western official said: “If Iran remains unwilling to take the opportunities these talks present, it will face continuing and intensified pressure and isolation.”
Experts said a breakthrough was unlikely, with the six powers wary of making concessions that would enable the Islamic Republic to draw out the talks and gain time to develop a nuclear weapons capability.
The Moscow talks follow two rounds of negotiations since diplomacy resumed in April after a 15-month hiatus during which the West cranked up sanctions pressure.
As a priority, the West wants Iran to halt enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity, a level much higher than what is needed for power generation, seen by some experts as a dangerous step toward being able to make nuclear bomb material.
In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tehran would be prepared to stop enriching uranium to a higher level if the six powers agreed to supply the fuel it needs for a Tehran reactor making medical isotopes. “From the beginning the Islamic Republic has stated that if European countries provided 20 percent enriched fuel for Iran, it would not enrich to this level,” Ahmadinejad said in comments published on the presidential website.
But it is not clear how much influence Ahmadinejad has over the negotiations and whether his remarks reflect Tehran’s position. The president, who stands down at elections next year, has fallen out of favor with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the man who has the ultimate decision-making power over the strategic nuclear program.
Iran is seeking an end to increasingly tough economic sanctions which have in recent months directly targeted its ability to export oil, its economic lifeblood.
An EU embargo on Iranian oil takes full effect on July 1 and new U.S. financial sanctions some days before that. Iran’s crude oil exports have fallen by some 40 percent this year, according to the International Energy Agency.
Without progress to ensure Iran does not develop nuclear arms, Israel “could find itself facing the dilemma of ‘a bomb, or to bomb,’” Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said Sunday.
“Should that be the choice, then bombing [Iran] is preferable to a bomb [in Iran’s hands],” he said. ]
“I hope we do not face that dilemma,” Yaalon added.
The six powers hope at least to win assurances that Tehran is willing to discuss concrete solutions.
They want a substantive response to their offer of fuel supplies for Tehran’s research reactor and relief in sanctions on the sale of commercial aircraft parts to Iran.
At the last talks, in Baghdad last month, they asked Tehran in return to stop producing higher-grade uranium, ship any stockpile out of the country and close down Fordow, an underground enrichment facility.
But Iran’s chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, has indicated the incentives on offer are insufficient, although EU officials said last week that he had agreed to give serious consideration to the proposal.

Mubarak's ex-PM claims to win Egypt president vote
June 19, 2012/By Hamza Hendawi/Daily Star
CAIRO: A campaign spokesman for Hosni Mubarak's ex-prime minister said Tuesday that Ahmed Shafiq has won Egypt's presidential election, countering the Muslim Brotherhood's claims that its candidate was the winner and setting the stage for a divisive fight for the leadership.
The rival claims potentially open a new chapter of unrest at a time when opposition already is growing against a constitutional declaration announced by the military on Sunday which robbed the next president of many powers and gave the generals who succeeded Mubarak last year legislative powers as well as control over the process of drafting a permanent constitution.
The Brotherhood is already gearing up for a confrontation with the ruling military. It has called for mass demonstrations in Cairo and elsewhere on Tuesday to protest the military's declaration, which made changes to the interim constitution, as well as a court ruling last week that dissolved parliament, where the Brotherhood controlled nearly half the seats.
The court ruling has been endorsed by the military, whose leader, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, issued a decree dissolving the legislature. The Brotherhood and its Islamist allies dismissed the decree, arguing the military ruler had no right to issue it less than two weeks before the scheduled transfer of power to civilians. Also last week, the military-backed government granted military police and intelligence agents the right to arrest civilians for a host of suspected crimes.
Critics have called the military's moves a "legal coup," and on Tuesday former U.S. President Jimmy Carter expressed his concerns. His Carter Center monitored the two-day election over the weekend as it has every nationwide vote in Egypt since Mubarak's ouster.
"I am deeply troubled by the undemocratic turn that Egypt's transition has taken," Carter said in a statement Tuesday.
"The dissolution of the democratically-elected parliament and the return of elements of martial law generated uncertainty about the constitutional process before the election," he said, adding that the constitutional declaration violated the military's commitment to make a full transfer of power to an elected civilian government.
"An unelected military body should not interfere in the constitution drafting process," said Carter, alluding to the military's control over the writing of the charter. Carter is a regular visitor of Egypt, where he often meets with the ruling generals and government leaders.
The official result of the presidential election vote will be announced on Thursday. With each side now insisting it won, an announcement either way by the election commission could now raise protests from the losing side. Shafiq's campaign spokesman, Ahmed Sarhan, told a televised news conference that Shafiq won 51.5 percent of the vote and that the claim of victory by Shafiq's rival Mohammed Morsi was "false." "Gen. Ahmed Shafiq is the next president of Egypt," said Sarhan. He said Shafiq won some 500,000 votes more than Morsi, of the fundamentalist Brotherhood.
The Shafiq campaign's claim came just hours after Morsi's campaign repeated their claims of victory, saying Morsi had won 52 percent of the vote compared to 48 by Shafiq.
The Brotherhood first announced Morsi's victory early Monday, around six hours after polls closed. It said its claim was based on returns announced by election officials from each counting center around the country. Each campaign has representatives at every center, who compile the individual returns.
The Brotherhood's compilation during the first round of voting last month proved generally accurate and, when it announced its victory early on in that race, it raised no objections.
But this time, Shafiq's campaign countered quickly, saying early Monday that its ongoing count showed their man ahead. Tuesday's announcement was its first claim that it had won.
The Brotherhood was already calling supporters into the street against the military. Bu the afternoon, several thousand protesters gathered in Cairo's Tahrir Square, birthplace of the uprising that toppled Mubarak 16 months ago. The crowd was expected to be in the tens of thousands by evening, when the summer heat is expected to ease.
A handful of lawmakers made symbolic attempts to enter parliament, but were met by a locked gate and a line of anti-riot soldiers on the other side.
Spokesmen for Morsi's campaign other political groups were expected to join the rallies. April 6, one of the main revolutionary groups behind last year's uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak's regime, confirmed it would participate.
How much others participate will be a key measure of whether the Islamist group can rally secular and leftist movements to its side.
Reacting to Morsi's victory claim, the main index of Egypt's stock market plunged for the second day running on Tuesday, adding to the woes of investors.
The EGX-30 was down 4.2 percent Tuesday and 3.4 percent on Monday.

Metn residents to continue protests if Cabinet fails to approve replacement bridge
 June 19, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Metn residents warned Tuesday that they will hold a protest next month if no final decision is made regarding a replacement for the recently dismantled Jal al-Dib bridge. “The organizers apologize in advance to Lebanese and to foreign tourists for what their move on June 10 at 7 a.m. will result in if a final decision is not made based on a proposal with a plan for immediate implementation,” a statement by the residents said. It added that Metn residents were fed up with attempts by some officials to politicize their rightful demand for proper infrastructure.
Residents of Jal al-Dib and its environs have protested over the past two months to demand the construction of a replacement for the recently dismantled bridge, in the process blocking the main coastal highway leading to and from Beirut. Proposals made by an independent group of engineers representing Jal al-Dib’s residents and a number of other proposals by the Council of Development and Reconstruction have so far failed to be included in the Cabinet’s agenda for discussion. The protesters also said that during a meeting earlier this month with Deputy Prime Minister Samir Moqbel, whom the Cabinet designated to resolve the issue, the Development and Construction Council agreed to prepare a new study based on European standards for a highway extension to Beirut and Tripoli, with a road leading to Jal al-Dib and the Metn. In the statement Tuesday, residents urged the Cabinet to approve the plan to build the bridge as agreed with Moqbel.

Plumbly discusses Lebanon's National Dialogue with Tashnag
June 19, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: United Nations Special Coordinator for Lebanon Derek Plumbly discussed Lebanon's National Dialogue with the Tashnag Party Tuesday. Plumbly met with Tashnag official and Metn MP Hagop Pakradounian at the party's offices in Burj Hammoud, a statement from the Tashnag party said. Both Plumby and Pakradounian stressed the importance of the National Dialogue in forging national principles and reaching common ground, it said. They also discussed political developments in the region and the role of the United Nations. Pakradounian stressed the need to preserve the values of freedom, sovereignty and national independence, and highlighted the importance of dialogue among all parties as the means to solve conflict.