Egypt: President Mursi Replaces Defence Chiefs

By Staff Writer

CAIRO--Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi has retired top defence officials in a power shake-up before cancelling a constitutional amendment that had given top army generals powers formerly reserved for the head of state.

On Sunday, President Mursi surprisingly decided to retire the Defence minister Hussein Tantawi and Gen. Sami Annan, the chief of staff of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).

The move is said could heighten tension in the power contest between the presidency and the powerful military which initially wanted certain legislative powers to remain in their reserve after Mursi was elected President.

The two retired defence officials have been appointed as presidential adviser as three other top generals, chiefs of the air force, air defense and the navy, also retired in the process were given senior government jobs.

An unnamed military official was quoted late on Sunday by Egypt’s official news agency, MENA, saying that there has been no negative reaction from within the military, though a posting on a Facebook page known to be close to the military said the changes amounted to the natural handing over of leadership to a younger generation.

“The armed forces is a prestigious institution with a doctrine of full discipline and commitment to legitimacy,” said the posting, adding that they respect and appreciate the decision.

US Defense Department has said it was unperturbed by the new changes, vowing its continued close relationship with the country’s SCAF.

 “We had expected President Mursi at some point to coordinate changes in the military leadership to name a new team,” U.S. Defense Department press secretary George Little said in Washington.

The recent move has been seen by critics that the US- educated leader is accumulating too much power in his hand and those of the Muslim Brotherhood that had him elected as president.

He sought to assert his authority over the military recently when militants killed 16 Egyptian guards in Sinai Peninsula at a border post with Israel, by firing the intelligence chief after the attack.

But analysts say that the shake-up of the military brass might be part of a safe exit deal struck between Mursi and the generals to protect them against prosecutions for alleged crimes during the 17-month time they ruled after exit of longtime leader Hosni Mubarak.

The SCAF, with Tantawi as its head and Annan second in command, took over power after Mubarak was forced to step-down following weeks of violent street protests in February 2011 during the wake of the Arab spring that had began in Tunisia.

Mursi’s Brotherhood party won both parliamentary and presidential elections in June in the country’s first free and fair polls in modern history, but since then there have been a power struggle between the president and the military which had positioned themselves as power behind the presidency.