Egyptian army chief Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi was yesterday cleared to run for president by the country’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), setting the stage for what is widely expected to be an easy glide into the presidency by the broadly popular and seemingly teflon military figure. Following a decree issued by Egypt’s interim President Adly Mansour, Sisi was promoted to the rank of Field Marshal, part of what is being read as an all-but-explicit endorsement of his ascension by Egypt’s military hierarchy. Sisi emerged as Egypt’s most popular figure after the army’s July 2013 ouster of then-president Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood-linked government, which came amid mass protest calling for Morsi’s resignation and early elections. Egypt’s English-language Ahram Online this weekend described Sisi as “the Brotherhood’s arch-foe” and assessed that the Islamist organization is “more outcast than ever.” The description is in line with an Agence France-Presse report from last week describing the Brotherhood as “in complete disarray.”
The Brotherhood, which has won all elections in post-Mubarak Egypt, is in complete disarray, with its top leadership behind bars and hundreds of members and supporters on the run or living in constant fear…Brotherhood leaders are on trial facing charges which carry the death penalty, while those participating in demonstrations or possessing its leaflets face up to five years in jail.
It follows arguments stretching back months by Washington Institute fellow Eric Trager evaluating that the Brotherhood’s rigid, hierarchical structure made it vulnerable to disruption and decapitation. A presidential win by Sisi, especially if it is read as a firm popular rebuke of the Islamist organization, may complicate bilateral relations between Washington and Cairo. Last August the then-general expressed open anger at the Obama administration for what he described as America “[turning its] back on the Egyptians” as they battled Islamists. A diplomatic snub this week by the State Department risked further diplomatic deterioration.
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