Egypt’s Defense Minister and coup leader Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will run
for president – possibly before the end of the year, DEBKA file ’s Exclusive
sources report. He is deep in preparations for launching his election
campaign Thursday August 15 and plans to keep it short. Untroubled by
criticism from the United States and Europe, he plans to restore the Egyptian
army to political center stage in Cairo and keep the democratic process
under control. Like former presidents Gemal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and
Hosni Mubarak, the defense minister will repress the Muslim Brotherhood he
unseated on July 3 before cutting a deal with its leaders to permit them a
restricted measure of political activity.
Tuesday July 30, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel phoned Gen. El-Sisi
and, according to the official statement issued in Washington, talked about
this week’s visit to Cairo by European Union Foreign Policy Coordinator
Catherine Ashton and her two-hour conversation with deposed Egyptian
president Mohamed Morsi.
This dry communiqué omitted to reflect the attempts by Hagel and Ashton to
twist the Egyptian general’s arm intor releasing Morsi from detention and re-
integrating the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt’s national politics.
Hagel specifically pressed him to bring Muslim Brotherhood members into
the interim government and give them free rein to run candidates for
parliament in early 2014.
El-Sisi told Hagel and Ashton that it was up to the Muslim Brotherhood to
subscribe to his roadmap for the caretaker administration which is ruling the
country until elections are held. He then floored the US defense secretary by
announcing he was launching a lightning campaign for his own run for the
presidency in an early election. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle,
who arrived in Cairo Thursday, was also taken aback.
Wednesday, the US Senate voted 86-13 in favor of a motion to block a bill
calling for the suspension of US military aid to Egypt. This bill was tabled by
the Obama administration to signal its displeasure with and objections to the
military coup.
Nonetheless, President Obama has chosen to send to Cairo some time in
August, two senior Republican Senators, John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey
Graham of South Carolina, to try and smooth over the rough passage between
Cairo and Washington.
The administration can’t do much with Gen. El-Sisi. He addresses
Washington and European officials with courtesy but then goes off and does
the exact opposite of what they ask of him.
His actions present Washington and its European allies with unpalatable
facts:
1. The defense minister is determined to restore the Egyptian army to center
stage of Egypt’s political scene – as in the days of his predecessors.
2. Egypt is reverting to the Mubarak era when the army decided who would
be president.
3. The democratic process in Egypt will be controlled and overseen by the
army.
4. Again like all former presidents Gemal Abdel Nasser, Anwar Sadat and
Hosni Mubarak, El-Sisi is bent on repressing the Muslim Brotherhood which
he unseated last month until he can cut a deal with its leaders permitting
them to be politically active within pre-set confines. The Brothers will be
allowed to seat a small number of representatives in parliament.
5. Should the Americans or Europeans punish the military strongman by
halting or cutting back on economic and military aid to Egypt, he is confident
that Saudi Arabia and some oil emirates will make up the shortfall.
DEBKAfile ’s Washington sources report that the administration responded
Thursday by naming Robert Ford, US ambassador to Syria, as the new envoy
to Cairo. Ford made a name for his unconventional methods and for reaching
groups opposed to the Assad regime at the outset of the Syrian uprising.
Our sources report that while the West is focusing on restoring the Muslim
Brotherhood to the political center, the defense minister is wholly wrapped up
in his drive for two goals: Breaking up the constant pro-Morsi Brotherhood
sit-in in central Cairo, even by military force if need be; and getting his
election camp
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