Egyptian army chief Abdel Fattah
El-Sisi announced Wednesday that he would resign and declared his candidacy in
national elections that are expected later this year.
Defense Minister El-Sisi, 59, must
leave the army to run for
president. He made the announcement on national TV.
"These recent years of our
nation's history have conclusively shown that no one can become president of
Egypt against the will of the people or short of their support. Never can
anyone force Egyptians to vote for a president they do not want.
"Therefore, I am here before
you humbly stating my intention to run for the presidency of the Arab Republic
of Egypt ... Only your support will grant me this great honor," he said.
In the wake of the announcement, the
office of Interim President Adly Mansour said that he had promoted the chief of
staff of Egypt's armed forces, Lt. Gen. Sedki Sobhi, to the rank of first
lieutenant general.
The state-run Al-Ahram newspaper
reported earlier that El-Sisi had met military leaders to tell them he was
stepping down.
Quoting a military source, Al-Ahram
said the meeting would determine a successor to the field marshal. He is
expected to submit his resignation to Mansour at a Cabinet meeting on Thursday,
Al-Ahram said.
El-Sisi deposed President Mohamed
Morsy of the Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's first freely elected leader, last year
following mass protests against the latter's rule.
The officer is popular among
Egyptians who supported the army's decision to remove Morsy from power a year
into his term -- seeing him as the kind of strong man needed to end the turmoil
dogging Egypt since a popular uprising ended Hosni Mubarak's three decades of
one-man rule in 2011.
But El-Sisi is reviled by the
Islamist opposition, which sees him as the mastermind of a coup against an
elected leader and the author of a fierce crackdown on dissent.
Egypt has suffered bloody internal
strife since Morsy was overthrown.
On Wednesday, police clashed with
protesters at Cairo University who were demonstrating against a court's
decision to sentence 529 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood to death. In a
separate report, Al-Ahram quoted the health ministry as saying one person was
killed and eight injured in the clashes.
Monday's court ruling drew
widespread criticism from international human rights groups.
Source:CNN
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