Cairo: Egypt's new Islamist president Mohamed Morsi dismissed Cairo's two top generals on Sunday and cancelled a military order that curbed his powers, in a dramatic move that could free him of some of the restrictions of military rule.
It was not clear how far the measures were agreed with the dismissed Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, whose Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) had taken over when Hosni Mubarak was deposed - nor how far they would shift the power balance between the generals and Morsi's long-suppressed Muslim Brotherhood.
A member of the military council told Reuters that Morsi, a moderate Islamist popularly elected in June but with constitutional powers sharply circumscribed in advance by the generals, had consulted Tantawi, 76, and General Sami Enan, 64, the military chief of staff, before ordering both men to retire.
However, coupled with what Morsi's spokesman described as the cancellation of the constitutional declaration issued just before Morsi's election, by which Tantawi and his colleagues curbed presidential powers, 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....
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12:31 AM, Aug 13, 2012
