Egypt is quite familiar with a military takeover.
It happened before when Col. Abdel Nasser in 1952 led a coup, resulting in the overthrow of the monarchy of King Farouk and resulted in the military ruling and heavily influencing events in Egypt for the next 60 years – until the ouster two years ago of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
The military, meantime, has deployed in cities along the Suez Canal – Suez, Port Said and Ismalia – after declaring a state of emergency. There is the growing prospect that the military could temporarily shut down passage of ships through the Suez Canal.
WND/G2Bulletin sources say that such a turn of events would not be surprising, given that there is prescience for such a development, but that a military coup would have the tacit backing of the U.S.
Over congressional objections, the Obama administration recently approved $1.6 billion – of which $1.3 billion is for the military – in an effort to show continued support for the military in the face of the political crisis.
The U.S. always has backed the military despite demonstrations against Western influence and support for Mubarak, who represented those influences.
The military, seeing the tide turning, decided to take an initial neutral position in during the early days of the demonstrations and with Mubarak’s ouster set up the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which temporarily ruled Egypt prior to new presidential elections that saw Morsi take office.
During that period, military rule didn’t win it much support among the people, which prompted its leadership to take a more neutral position and not resist the rise of Morsi – who was strongly backed by the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The continuing conflict between political forces and their differences concerning the management of the country could lead to a collapse of the state and threaten future generations,” according to Gen. Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, who also is the nation’s defense minister and once served on the SCAF.
He pointed out that the economic, political and social challenges now facing Egypt were “a real threat to the security of Egypt and the cohesiveness of the Egyptian state.”
While military deployment along the Suez Canal is supposed to protect this key shipping route from demonstrators, there is the prospect that the military could temporarily close it down to ensure its security against attack from the demonstrators.
Demonstrations were sparked by death sentences handed down by a court on 21 local football fans involved in riots a year ago that resulted in the deaths of some 74 people. In turn, this caused further demonstrations for reasons other than protests over the court sentencing.
There also were protests over the authority that Morsi had decreed to himself although he rescinded some of its provisions, while keeping others. His decree came even though he was democratically elected following the ouster of Mubarak.
Protests also were over approval of a constitution which was written by a majority of Muslim Brotherhood members on a committee. It later was submitted for a nationwide referendum and narrowly passed. Protesters’ concern is that the new constitution does not adequately protect freedom of expression or religion.
Regional observers believe that comments by al-Sisi are to send a reminder that the military remains an important political and economic influence in Egypt. They add that he is asserting the army’s independence and that it remains one of the foundations of the country.
Al-Sisi has stated that he recognizes peaceful demonstrations but will protect the Suez Canal – a main source of foreign revenue for Egypt – even if it means taking it over and shutting it down to protect it.
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