Egypt's army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said in comments published in a Kuwait paper Thursday he has decided to run in the presidential election scheduled for April.
"Yes, the matter has been decided and I have no choice but to respond to the call of the Egyptian people," Sisi told Kuwait's Al-Seyassah newspaper when asked if he had decided to contest the presidency.
"The call (of the people) has been heard everywhere and I will not reject it. I will seek a renewal of confidence of the people through free voting," Sisi said in the interview.
The report comes a week after the country's top military body endorsed Field Marshal Sisi's candidacy for an election, which he is assured to win after ousting democratically elected president Mohamed Morsy in July.
Sisi, wildly popular for overthrowing the Islamist Morsy, is now expected to resign as army chief before he officially becomes a candidate in the election scheduled to be held by mid-April.
A victory for the 59-year-old Sisi, who will have to give up his military uniform to stand for election, would continue a tradition of Egyptian presidents drawn from the armed forces since the overthrow of the monarchy in 1952.
Sisi told the daily he would seek help from the people to "cure Egypt of its chronic illness which has deteriorated in recent years".
Sisi, who is still defence minister and head of the powerful military council, warned there was no quick fix for Egypt's woes and he would not try to delude Egyptians.
"We will not play with their dreams or tell them that we have a magical wand," to resolve the country's massive problems, he said.
The security situation in Egypt, he added however, was improving as "today is better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better".
Should he be elected, he said, he would call for a pan-Arab alliance to fight against growing "terrorism" in the region.
"We will call for an Arab union based on mutual cooperation between countries suffering from terrorism so we can wage a common war against it," Sisi said.
'Liquidate black terror'
"I believe the Gulf Cooperation Council states and other countries will welcome the union the aim of which, as I said, will be to liquidate black terror."
GCC states Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have been the main financial backers of Egypt since Morsy was pushed aside.
Saudi Arabia had long seen Morsy's Muslim Brotherhood as a threat. It quickly pledged $5 billion (3.7 billion euros) in aid to the new government in Cairo, with Kuwait offering $4 billion and the UAE $4.9 billion.
To his supporters, Sisi is the best option for ending three years of instability following the 2011 uprising that ended the presidency of Hosni Mubarak, another former military officer.
But the most populous Arab nation faces a daunting task as violence has gripped the country and has become bitterly polarised.
More than 1,000 people, mostly Islamists have been killed in street clashes, and thousands imprisoned, since Morsy's overthrow.
And analysts warn that a jihadist group behind a wave of spectacular attacks poses a serious threat to Egypt's stability.
In less than a fortnight, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis (Partisans of Jerusalem) claimed responsibility for a car bombing at police headquarters in Cairo, shooting down a military helicopter with a missile in Sinai, and assassinating a police general in broad daylight in the capital.
Sisi's presidential bid is expected to draw opposition not only from most Islamists but also from some liberals.
