Announcement by the army chief creates fears of conflict between the government and military

A controversial announcement by Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi Soliman, the Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Armed Forces created huge furore in Egypt today.

The army general announced today that the military will not allow a “certain group” to dominate in the country’s government. According to local political analysts, Tantawi was hinting at the Muslim Brotherhood, whose candidate Mohammed Morsi recently won the Egyptian Presidential elections.

Even more significant is the fact that the announcement from Tantawi came only a few hours after his meeting with Hillary Clinton, the United States Secretary of State. Clinton had urged Tantawi to cooperate with Morsi, to facilitate a speedy transfer of power to the civilian officials.

The Egyptian military, which ruled Egypt ever since the dictator Hosni Mubarak was overthrown in 2011, is believed to be a secular institution. Many of the analysts have claimed that the army is in unease over the victory of the Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammed Morsi, who is believed to pursue a strongly Islamic agenda while in office.

Just days before the new president was sworn in, the armed forces had passed a number of rules and regulations, intended to severely reduce the power of the president and to prevent any intervention from the civilian government over the military. The Egyptian parliament was dissolved by the military recently, in a bid to reduce the power of the civilian authorities. The Supreme Constitutional Court recently dismissed a Presidential decree, which would have reinstated the parliament.

The Constitutional Court had ruled on 14th June 2012 that the parliamentary election is invalid, citing irregularities in the voter rolls and ballots. More than two-thirds of the seats in the Egyptian parliamentary elections of 2011 were won by Islamist parties, including the Freedom and Justice Party of the Muslim Brotherhood and the hard-line Salafist Al-Nour Party.