Iranian news agency Fars quoted sources described as close to Defense Minister Field Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sisi as saying that “he took a final decision to respond to desires of the Egyptian people and stand for presidential elections. Decision will be declared within hours after he adjusted positions of the military before leaving his post.”
“Military council agreed in consensus on selecting Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Sedqy Sobhy to replace Sisi. He will be sworn in as defense minister within the coming few days within the anticipated cabinet reshuffle which will include at least 10 ministries. Minister of Interior Affairs Mohamed Ibrahim, Tourism Minister Hesham Zaazou, Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, Education Minister Mahmoud abul Nasr will remain in their posts,” Fars added.
The news agency also added that Sisi was pondering a national project to be the nucleus of his electoral platform, which will likely be a nuclear program, especially after the armed forces’ engineering department took charge of the Dabaa area, where the Egyptian nuclear project will be carried out to generate nuclear energy used for peaceful purposes.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
