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| Syria passes law to allow political parties |
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Syria has adopted a draft law allowing for the creation of new political parties alongside the long-ruling Baath party. The multiparty bill approved by the Cabinet late on Sunday follows other concessions Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made as part of his efforts to quell more than four months of protests against his government. “The establishment of any party has to be based on ... a commitment to the constitution, democratic principles, the rule of law and a respect for freedom and basic rights,” said SANA, the state-run news agency. The draft law, which still needs parliamentary approval, would allow for the establishment of any political party that is not based on religious or tribal lines, or discriminates due to ethnicity, gender or race, the news agency said. Assad's ruling Baath party, which calls for “unity, freedom and socialism”, has held a monopoly over political life in Syria since a 1963 military coup. A key demand of the protest movement is the abolishment of Article 8 in the Syrian constitution, which states that the Baath party is the only leader of the state and society. Lawmaker Mohammad Habash told The Associated Press that the bill in itself was positive but that some articles of the constitution must be amended first, including article 8. Series of overtures Assad, who inherited power in 2000 after the death of his father, President Hafez al-Assad, has made a series of overtures to try to ease the growing social uprising. He lifted the decades-old emergency laws that gave the government a free hand to arrest people without charge, granted Syrian nationality to thousands of Kurds, a long-ostracized minority, and issued several pardons. Governor sacked The Syrian president sacked the governor of the flashpoint province of Deir az-Zor on Sunday, two days after massive protests demanding his ousting were held in the oil-producing region. Samir Othman al-Sheikh, an officer in the intelligence apparatus, was asked to replace Hussein Arnos. Arnos, a civilian, has now been asked to govern the small province of Qunaitera west of Damascus, on the border with the Golan Heights. The move is being seen as an attempt to tighten the government's grip on Deir az-Zor. About half a million people took to the streets across Deir az-Zor on Friday, in one of the biggest demonstrations in recent weeks, activists and human rights campaigners said. Deir az-Zor, which produces most of Syria's oil, is among the poorest of the country's 13 provinces, and a water crisis in the past six years has crippled agricultural production.
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