Credit:Asoa Times:
Egypt’s ostensibly inexperienced president Mohammed Morsi accomplished nothing short of a coup d’etat on Sunday when he replaced the men who were widely seen as Egypt’s rulers – Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi and Lieutenant general Sami Anan, among others – and shredded the latest constitutional amendment issued by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).
The SCAF, its rule undercut by the collapse of authority in the Sinai peninsula and by last week’s cross-border terror attack (which cost the lives of 16 soldiers and caught the Egyptians unprepared despite a “detailed intelligence warning”), conceded. However, it is uncertain what its true motives and intentions are, as is the precise magnitude, in practical terms, of the Muslim Brotherhood’s spectacular victory. Many eyes, both in the region and farther away, are fixed on Egypt as the intrigue unfolds.
It remains unclear what exactly transpired in the days and hours prior to Sunday afternoon’s surprise announcement. The fact that General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Tantawi’s replacement as defense minister and army chief, is nearly two decades younger than him has raised the possibility of an internal army coup. The sharp generational divide in the army’s higher echelon and the unwillingness of the older generals to share some of their power with younger colleagues has been a liability for the SCAF since the ouster of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, himself an octogenarian air force general.