Egypt’s de-facto leader Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi wanted to resign from his post as defense minister during former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif’s time in office, said Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister and presidential hopeful, on Saturday. Tantawi had objected to some of Nazif's economic policies.
Speaking at a meeting with some youths on Saturday, Shafiq said: “I told him he should stay to keep Nazif scared of him.”
Before the revolution, many commentators spoke about Tantawi’s anger at Nazif, the former president’s son Gamal and Ahmed Ezz, former senior member of the disbanded National Democratic Party (NDP), especially when they tried to widen the scope of privatization to military-owned industries.
Regarding Shafiq’s appoint to the premiership shortly before Mubarak’s resignation, he said: “I did not expect to be appointed, as I was not liked by the leaders of the disbanded NDP,” he said, arguing that he “would not take orders from Gamal Mubarak.”
Shafiq added that he met Gamal Mubarak at the presidential palace, and that the latter told him he had resigned from the Policies Committee in an attempt to make him accept the appointment.
“I agreed to become prime minister to serve Egypt, not to serve Mubarak,” he said. “But I did not get the chance to form the coalition government I had in mind to achieve the demands of the revolution.”
