August 12, 2012 7:38 pm
Egypt’s Morsi sacks top military leaders
By Heba Saleh in Cairo
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Egypt’s new Islamist president has sacked the country’s top two military leaders and annulled a constitutional declaration, in a dramatic move that could severely curb the political power the army grabbed during the June elections.
Mohamed Morsi ordered the immediate retirement of Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, defence minister for 20 years, and Samy Annan, chief of staff, said Yasser Ali, the president’s spokesman, in a televised announcement.
Mr Morsi also rescinded a constitutional declaration issued in June that curtailed the powers of the new president and enhanced the military’s authority. The president now holds full executive and legislative powers in the absence of parliament, which was dissolved earlier this summer by a court order.
Although the two men have now been appointed as presidential advisers and awarded medals, their removal sends a strong message reflecting Mr Morsi’s determination to impose his authority over a military seeking to establish itself as a rival centre of power.
The sackings come a week after suspected Islamic militants in the Sinai killed sixteen Egyptian soldiers near the border with Israel highlighting the lawlessness in the strategic peninsula.
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The grave security lapse which revealed the extent to which jihadi groups have taken over the Sinai has provided Mr Morsi with an opportunity to gain ground against his military rivals. Last week he sacked the intelligence chief, the governor of North Sinai and the commanders of the military police and the republican guard.
Mr Tantawi headed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the body which took power after the uprising which toppled Hosni Mubarak as president last year. SCAF formally handed all authority over to Mr Morsi last month, but it has continued to retain extensive influence. The army leaders are widely seen as part of a “deep state” that includes holdovers from the previous regime encompassing parts of the judiciary, the security services and the media resisting rule by Mr Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood group.
“Morsi’s power struggle with the military continues, but this is the first time in Egyptian history that an elected civilian overrules and sacks generals,” said Omar Ashour, professor at Exeter University and visiting scholar at Brookings Doha. “It tips the balance that was ingrained in Egypt since 1952 towards civilian authority.”
Rabab al-Mahdi, a political analyst, said: “This is the outcome of revolution: for the first time ever the people are now part of the political equation. For the first time there is a ruler who can claim legitimacy through the ballot box and he is using this legitimacy.”
The cancellation of the declaration means the army will no longer have the right to interfere with drafting the country’s new constitution. The declaration had also given the military independence from civilian oversight by allowing its top commanders to be the final decision makers on all matters affecting the armed forces. It is not known whether that will now be possible.
Mr Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group has been engaged in an escalating power struggle with the military over the past year since it won parliamentary, then the presidential elections. This intensified as it became clear that the exercise of power in the country would shift away from an old system in which an establishment rooted in the military held sway and could impose its will through a rubber stamp parliament.
Mr Tantawi’s replacement as defence minister is Abdel Fattah al Sisi, the head of military intelligence. Mr Morsi has also reshuffled several other senior commanders, replacing them with serving figures from within the military hierarchy.
General Mohamed el-Assar, a senior figure in SCAF and now deputy defence minister, told Reuters that the reshuffle of the top brass had been discussed and agreed with Mr Tantawi and other army commanders.
Analysts say the changes in the army would have been the result of negotiations, at least with those commanders promoted to the newly vacant senior positions.
“I think the new commanders will have some demands,” said Mr Ashour. “Morsi won a battle but not the war.”
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2012.
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