Israel Matzav

Morsy sacks top generals

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsy sacked Egyptian army commander Hussein Tantawi and several other top generals in a bid to bring the Egyptian army under the control of the country's civilian rulers from the Muslim Brotherhood.

A spokesman for the Islamist president announced on television that the ejection of top military figures associated with the old regime represented the completion of the Egyptian revolution.

The spokesman added that a constitutional declaration passed by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which forbade the president making military appointments, was canceled.

The council seized power after Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, and dissolved Egypt’s lower house of parliament after it came under the control of Islamist representatives through elections.

Tantawi and Enan were given honorary roles as advisers, the spokesman said, before announcing that the heads of the Egyptian Air Force, air defense system, and Navy had also been ejected from their posts.

Although their replacements are expected to be secular security figures like their predecessors, the move is widely seen as a signal by the Muslim Brotherhood that power is now firmly concentrated in the hands of the Islamist civilian government.

It was not clear how far the measures were agreed upon with the dismissed Tantawi, nor how far they would shift the power balance between the generals and Morsy’s long-suppressed Muslim Brotherhood.

A member of the military council told Reuters that Morsy, a moderate Islamist popularly elected in June but with constitutional powers sharply circumscribed in advance by the generals, had consulted Tantawi, 76, and Enan, 64, the military chief of staff, before ordering both men to retire.

However, coupled with the cancellation of the constitutional declaration issued just before Morsy’s election, the surprise move seemed to indicate a substantial reordering of Egypt’s political forces as it waits for a new constitution after six decades of unbroken army rule.

Hmmm.

DEBKA reported that Egyptian tanks have advanced to Israel's border. I haven't been able to confirm that from any other source. Egypt does have 60 M-60 tanks in Sinai, but those aren't necessarily on Israel's border.

Labels: Egypt, Egyptian army, Egyptian-Israeli border, Hussein Tantawi, Mohammed Morsy

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:55 AM