1.
Cabinet of Egypt
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The Cabinet of Egypt is the chief executive body of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It consists of the Prime Minister and the cabinet ministers, the government has a leading role in shaping the agenda of the houses of Parliament. It may propose laws to Parliament, as well as amendments during parliamentary meetings and it may make use of some procedures to speed up parliamentary deliberations. The government is only to Parliament, specifically the People’s Assembly. The People’s Assembly may pass a motion of censure, forcing the resignation of the cabinet, ministers have to answer questions from Members of Parliament, both written and oral, this is known as Inquiries to the Government Talebat Ihata. In addition, ministers attend meetings of the two houses of Parliament when laws pertaining to their areas of responsibility are being discussed, the details of the cabinets organisation are set down in articles 153 to 160 of the constitution. Article 155 states that the members of the cabinet have to be sworn in when taking office, directing, co-ordinating and following up the work of the ministries and their different administrations as well as public organizations and institutions. Issuing administrative and executive decisions in accordance with the laws and decrees, preparing the draft of the general budget of the State. Preparing the draft of the State’s overall plan, contracting and granting loans in accordance with the rules of the Constitution. Supervising the implementation of law, maintaining State security and protecting the rights of the citizens, traditionally, the cabinet comprises, in decreasing rank, The Prime Minister, Head of the Egyptian government. Currently there are 39 full ministers in this government, ministers of State, described as ‘junior ministers’, are assigned specific responsibilities or agencies. g. The Ministry of State for Environmental Affairs, chairmen of Departments, who head certain important departments that do not fall under the jurisdiction of any of the ministers and answer directly to the Prime Minister, e. g. The Chairman of the Suez Canal Authority, ministers-Delegate, who assist ministers in areas of their duties and rarely attend cabinet meeting. The following eligibility conditions must be met constitutionally by all ministers, at least 30 years old natural-born Egyptian citizen, enjoying full civil and political rights. A minister may not work in any independent work, commercial, financial or industrial while in office. The interim cabinet of Essam Sharaf was sworn in on Monday 7 March 2011 by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, in July 2011, Sharaf fired several ministers although the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces said he didnt have that power. On 21 November 2011, the entire Cabinet offered to resign in the face of the wave of protests. On 24 November 2011, Egypts military rulers appointed former prime minister Kamal Ganzouri to form a new government and his government resigned on 26 June 2012 after the election of Mohamed Morsi as President of Egypt to make way for the new government
2.
Anwar Sadat
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Muhammad Anwar el-Sadat was the third President of Egypt, serving from 15 October 1970 until his assassination by fundamentalist army officers on 6 October 1981. His refusal to reconcile with them over the Palestinian issue resulted in Egypt being suspended from the Arab League from 1979 to 1989, the peace treaty was also one of the primary factors that led to his assassination. Anwar Sadat was born on 25 December 1918 in Mit Abu El Kom, Monufia, Egypt to a poor Nubian family, one of his brothers, Atef Sadat, later became a pilot and was killed in action during the October War of 1973. His father, Anwar Mohammed El Sadat was an Upper Egyptian, thus, they said his mother did not look Egyptian enough and some called him Nassers black poodle. He graduated from the Royal Military Academy in Cairo in 1938 and was appointed to the Signal Corps and he entered the army as a second lieutenant and was posted to Sudan. During the Second World War he was imprisoned by the British for his efforts to help from the Axis Powers in expelling the occupying British forces. Along with his fellow Free Officers, Sadat participated in the coup that launched the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Sadat was assigned to announce the news of the revolution to the Egyptian people over the radio networks, during the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser, Sadat was appointed minister of State in 1954. He was also appointed editor of the newly founded daily Al Gomhuria, in 1959, he assumed the position of Secretary to the National Union. Sadat was the President of the National Assembly and then vice president and he was reappointed as vice president again in December 1969. Sadat succeeded Nasser as president after the death in October 1970. Sadats presidency was widely expected to be short-lived, viewing him as having been little more than a puppet of the former president, Nassers supporters in government settled on Sadat as someone they could manipulate easily. Sadat surprised everyone with a series of political moves by which he was able to retain the presidency. On 15 May 1971, Sadat announced his Corrective Revolution, purging the government, political, Sadat encouraged the emergence of an Islamist movement, which had been suppressed by Nasser. Believing Islamists to be socially conservative he gave them considerable cultural and ideological autonomy in exchange for political support and this peace initiative failed as neither Israel nor the United States of America accepted the terms as discussed then. The Egyptian and Syrian performance in the stages of the war astonished both Israel, and the Arab World. The most striking achievement was the Egyptian militarys advance approximately 15 km into the occupied Sinai Peninsula after penetrating and this line was popularly thought to have been an impregnable defensive chain. As the war progressed, three divisions of the Israeli army led by General Ariel Sharon had crossed the Suez Canal, although agreed upon, the ceasefire was immediately broken
3.
Mohammed Ahmed Sadek
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Mohammed Ahmed Sadek was an Egyptian colonel general who served as defense minister under the rule of President Anwar Sadat. Sadek graduated from the Egypts military academy in 1938 and from the Frunze military academy in the Soviet Union, Sadek joined the army and took part in the Palestine war in 1948 and the Suez campaign in 1956. From 1962 to 1964 he was military attaché at the Egypts embassy in Bonn, then he was made the curricula director of the military academy in 1965 and his term lasted until 1967. He served as the head of intelligence from June 1967 to 1969. In September 1969, he acted as the general secretary of the Pan Arab Organization. He was also named as the chief of the Egyptian army staff by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in September 1969, in 1970, Sadek was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general. Sadek was appointed minister by Anwar Sadat in May 1971 when Mohammed Fawzi resigned from office. Upon his appointment, he was promoted to full general, when Sadek was in office, he also held the job of armed forces commander in chief. In October 1972, Sadek resigned from office, and was put under house arrest, sadeks anti-Soviet approach was cited as the reason for his resignation. He was replaced by Ahmed Ismail Ali as defence minister in October 1972
4.
Mohamed Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy
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Mohamed Abdel Ghani el-Gamasy was an Egyptian Field Marshal and The Commander in Chief of The Armed Forces. El Gamasy was born on 9 September 1921 in Batanoon, Monufia Governorate and he was one of two brothers and five sisters. After high school, El Gamassy joined the Egyptian Military Academy and was commissioned in 1941 in an infantry regiment, as a Major, he was GSO-II of an infantry battalion during the 1948 War. During the War of Attrition, on March 1969, then-President Gamal Abdel Nasser appointed el-Gamasy as commander of the Second Field Army. El-Gamasy later wrote that Nasser should have deconstructed Amers autonomous web of control in the forces following the Egyptian military failure during the Suez Crisis in 1956. El-Gamasy was well known for being the Chief of Operations for all Ground Forces participating in the 1973 October War and he was also appointed by Anwar Sadat as the head of the group that participated in the disengagement talks on 28 October, at Kilometer 101. On 7 June 2003, El Gamasy died in a hospital in Cairo after a battle with illness. El-Gamsy was chosen as one of the best 50 military leaders in the military history
5.
General Intelligence Directorate (Egypt)
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The GID is part of the Egyptian intelligence community, together with the Office of Military Intelligence Services and Reconnaissance and Homeland Security. In July 2013, General Mohammed Ahmed Fareed al-Tohami was appointed head of the Egyptian intelligence apparatus, instead of Mohamed Raafat Shehata, the decision to set up an Egyptian intelligence service was taken by President Gamal Abdel Nasser in 1954, and placed under the command of Zakaria Mohieddin. The agencys importance rose when Nasser assigned its command to Salah Nasr, under Nasrs supervision, the GID relocated to its own building and established separate divisions for Radio, Computer, Forgery and Black Operations. To cover the expenses, Nasr set up Al Nasr Company, ostensibly an import-export firm. He played an important role helping Algeria, Southern Yemen and many Arab. Nasr established good relations with other agencies across the globe. One of his constructions is the Gezeera Tower in Cairo, for several years the name of GID director was a secret only known to high officials and government newspapers chief editors. However, Major-General Omar Suleiman, who was the head of the GID from 1993 to January 2011, was the first one to break this taboo. His name was published before he became a known face in media after being envoyed by former Egyptian president Mubarak to Israel, USA. He was later replaced by Mohamed Raafat Shehata, in July 2013, as result of 2012–13 Egyptian protests, Mohamed Raafat Shehata was sacked by interim president Adly Mansour and was replaced by General Mohamed Ahmed Fareed. The GID states that it managed to plant an Egyptian agent among Jewish immigrants to Israel and that agent, Refaat Al-Gammal, managed to live 18 years in Israel without being discovered. In 1970 the GID managed to hunt an Israeli oil rig while being shipped from Canada to Sinai, clandestine GID agents and frogmen succeeded in tracing the oil rig to Abidjan, Côte dIvoire, and planted sets of explosives, had them detonated and crippled the rig. This operation was published in 1985 under the name Al-Haffar Operation it was supervised at that time by GID director Amin Howeidi, the plan included planting false information and hidden implied data in Egyptian president Sadats speeches and newspapers articles. For example, the GID prepared the military operations and evacuated complete sections of Cairo hospitals to be ready for receiving war casualties and this evacuation that took place few days before the war started, was done after declaring false information that those hospitals were infected with Tetanus. The plan included an operation whose details are still not published. Gumaa Al-Shawan who used to provide the Mossad with false information from 1967 to 1973, he used to get the advanced transmission devices from the Mossad. During the 1973 war with Israel the GID spied on Mossad weeks prior to the attack on the 6 October 1973. The information derived allowed the director and his associates to identify the weakest points on the Israeli front line, a suicide mission to divert the Israeli counter-attack was initiated to halt Israeli movements into mainland Egypt
6.
Muhammad Naguib
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Mohamed Naguib was the first President of Egypt, serving from the declaration of the Republic on 18 June 1953 to 14 November 1954. Along with Gamal Abdel Nasser, he was the leader of the Egyptian Revolution of 1952. Naguibs full name was Mohamed Naguib Yousef Qotp Elkashlan, he was born on 19 February 1901 in Khartoum, Sudan and he was the eldest of nine children of an Egyptian, Youssef Naguib, and a Sudanese woman Zohra Ahmed Othman. His family name, Elkashlan, was popular in Egypt at that time, due to well-known scientific personalities such as Saad Elkashlan and he came from a long line of army officers, his father served in the Egyptian army in Sudan. Naguibs favourite game, however, was playing at soldiers with his younger brother, having built a toy fortress in the front yard, Naguib would spend hours conquering inches of land with his toy soldiers. As a result, Naguib first studied to become a translator, and later in his life earned a law degree and he never completed his doctorate because his career in the army, undertaken in defiance of his fathers wishes, by then had begun to take off. Nevertheless, he found the time to polish his skills, learning English, French. While studying in Khartoum, Naguib had often been censured and sometimes even whipped by his British tutors for criticizing Britains occupation of Egypt and Sudan. At this time, Naguib chose Napoleon as a role model, soon, however, Napoleon was replaced in Naguibs affections by Mustafa Kamil, the founder of the National Party, and later he found another mirror in Saad Zaghlul. Some years after he was ousted from power, Naguib also came to somewhat admire Gandhi, after the death of his father in 1916, the family moved to Cairo, while Naguib and Ali finished their studies in Sudan. Naguib worked as a guard in Cairo, but in 1924 and he married in 1927, pursuing his legal studies while continuing a career in the army. By 1931, he was ready to resign from the army, in 1934, he remarried and was transferred to the Coast Guard, where he was employed to chase smugglers across the Sinai desert, mixing with the bedouin and helping treat their illnesses. In 1940, he was again promoted, however, despite generally favorable relations between Naguib and King Farouk, Naguib refused to kiss the kings hand. A brisk hand shake was the best Naguib could offer, any illusions Naguib might have had about the nature of Farouks rule evaporated on 4 February 1942 after a standoff at Abdeen Palace in Cairo between the British and the king. On this occasion, Farouk turned down Naguibs resignation and he again attempted to resign in 1951 when Hussein Serri Amer, widely thought to be corrupt, was made head of the Coast Guard. Meanwhile, Naguib had continued to climb the ladder, serving in Palestine during the Palestine War in 1948. While on active service in Palestine, Naguib would dedicate 30 minutes every morning to reading the Quran, in 1949, Naguib secretly joined the Free Officers movement, and a year later he was promoted to the rank of Major-General. The general is considered one of Egypts few heroes from the war in Palestine, the Free Officers, led by Colonel Gamal Abdel Nasser were young members of the military – all under thirty-five and all from peasant or lower-middle-class backgrounds
7.
Gamal Abdel Nasser
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Gamal Abdel Nasser Hussein was the second President of Egypt, serving from 1956 until his death. Nasser led the 1952 overthrow of the monarchy and introduced far-reaching land reforms the following year, Nassers popularity in Egypt and the Arab world skyrocketed after his nationalization of the Suez Canal and his political victory in the subsequent Suez Crisis. Calls for pan-Arab unity under his leadership increased, culminating with the formation of the United Arab Republic with Syria, in 1962, Nasser began a series of major socialist measures and modernization reforms in Egypt. Despite setbacks to his pan-Arabist cause, by 1963 Nassers supporters gained power in several Arab countries and he began his second presidential term in March 1965 after his political opponents were banned from running. Following Egypts defeat by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, Nasser resigned, after the conclusion of the 1970 Arab League summit, Nasser suffered a heart attack and died. His funeral in Cairo drew five million mourners and an outpouring of grief across the Arab world, Nasser remains an iconic figure in the Arab world, particularly for his strides towards social justice and Arab unity, modernization policies, and anti-imperialist efforts. His presidency also encouraged and coincided with an Egyptian cultural boom, Gamal Abdel Nasser was born on 15 January 1918 in Bakos, Alexandria, the first son of Fahima and Abdel Nasser Hussein. Nassers father was a postal worker born in Beni Mur in Upper Egypt and raised in Alexandria and his parents married in 1917, and later had two more boys, Izz al-Arab and al-Leithi. Nassers family traveled frequently due to his fathers work, in 1921, they moved to Asyut and, in 1923, to Khatatba, where Nassers father ran a post office. Nasser attended a school for the children of railway employees until 1924, when he was sent to live with his paternal uncle in Cairo. Nasser exchanged letters with his mother and visited her on holidays and he stopped receiving messages at the end of April 1926. Upon returning to Khatatba, he learned that his mother had died giving birth to his third brother, Shawki. Nasser later stated that losing her this way was a shock so deep that time failed to remedy and he adored his mother and the injury of her death deepened when his father remarried before the years end. In 1928, Nasser went to Alexandria to live with his maternal grandfather and it was in Alexandria that Nasser became involved in political activism. After witnessing clashes between protesters and police in Manshia Square, he joined the demonstration without being aware of its purpose. The protest, organized by the ultranationalist Young Egypt Society, called for the end of colonialism in Egypt in the wake of the 1923 Egyptian constitutions annulment by Prime Minister Ismail Sidqi, Nasser was arrested and detained for a night before his father bailed him out. When his father was transferred to Cairo in 1933, Nasser joined him and he took up acting in school plays for a brief period and wrote articles for the schools paper, including a piece on French philosopher Voltaire titled Voltaire, the Man of Freedom. Two protesters were killed and Nasser received a graze to the head from a policemans bullet, the incident garnered his first mention in the press, the nationalist newspaper Al Gihad reported that Nasser led the protest and was among the wounded
8.
Egypt
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Egypt, officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia by a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. Egypt is a Mediterranean country bordered by the Gaza Strip and Israel to the northeast, the Gulf of Aqaba to the east, the Red Sea to the east and south, Sudan to the south, and Libya to the west. Across the Gulf of Aqaba lies Jordan, and across from the Sinai Peninsula lies Saudi Arabia, although Jordan and it is the worlds only contiguous Afrasian nation. Egypt has among the longest histories of any country, emerging as one of the worlds first nation states in the tenth millennium BC. Considered a cradle of civilisation, Ancient Egypt experienced some of the earliest developments of writing, agriculture, urbanisation, organised religion and central government. One of the earliest centres of Christianity, Egypt was Islamised in the century and remains a predominantly Muslim country. With over 92 million inhabitants, Egypt is the most populous country in North Africa and the Arab world, the third-most populous in Africa, and the fifteenth-most populous in the world. The great majority of its people live near the banks of the Nile River, an area of about 40,000 square kilometres, the large regions of the Sahara desert, which constitute most of Egypts territory, are sparsely inhabited. About half of Egypts residents live in areas, with most spread across the densely populated centres of greater Cairo, Alexandria. Modern Egypt is considered to be a regional and middle power, with significant cultural, political, and military influence in North Africa, the Middle East and the Muslim world. Egypts economy is one of the largest and most diversified in the Middle East, Egypt is a member of the United Nations, Non-Aligned Movement, Arab League, African Union, and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Miṣr is the Classical Quranic Arabic and modern name of Egypt. The name is of Semitic origin, directly cognate with other Semitic words for Egypt such as the Hebrew מִצְרַיִם, the oldest attestation of this name for Egypt is the Akkadian
9.
Kingdom of Egypt
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The Kingdom of Egypt was the independent Egyptian state established under the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1922 following the Unilateral Declaration of Egyptian Independence by the United Kingdom. Between 1936-52, the British continued to maintain military presence and political advisors, in line with the change in status from sultanate to kingdom, the Sultan of Egypt, Fuad I, saw his title changed to King. The kingdoms sovereignty was subject to limitations imposed by the British, who retained enormous control over Egyptian affairs. Throughout the kingdoms existence Sudan was formally united with Egypt, however, actual Egyptian authority in Sudan was largely nominal due to Britains role as the dominant power in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Other political forces emerging in this included the Communist Party, and the Muslim Brotherhood. King Fuad died in 1936 and Farouk inherited the throne at the age of sixteen, alarmed by Italys recent invasion of Abyssinia, he signed the Anglo-Egyptian Treaty, requiring Britain to withdraw all troops from Egypt, except in the Suez Canal Zone. The kingdom was plagued by corruption, and its citizens saw it as a puppet of the British and this, coupled with the defeat in the 1948-1949 Palestine War, led to the Egyptian Revolution of 1952 by the Free Officers Movement. Farouk abdicated in favour of his infant son Fuad II, in 1953 the monarchy was formally abolished and the Republic of Egypt was established. The legal status of Sudan was only resolved in 1954, when Egypt, in 1914, Khedive Abbas II sided with the Ottoman Empire and the Central Powers in the First World War, and was promptly deposed by the British in favor of his uncle Hussein Kamel. A group known as the Wafd attended the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 to demand Egypts independence, included in the group was political leader, Saad Zaghlul, who would later become Prime Minister. When the group was arrested and deported to the island of Malta, from March to April 1919, there were mass demonstrations that turned into uprisings. This is known in Egypt as the First Revolution, British repression of the anti-occupation riots led to the death of some 800 people. In November 1919, the Milner Commission was sent to Egypt by the British to attempt to resolve the situation, in 1920, Lord Milner submitted his report to Lord Curzon, the British Foreign Secretary, recommending that the protectorate should be replaced by a treaty of alliance. As a result, Curzon agreed to receive an Egyptian mission headed by Zaghlul, the mission arrived in London in June 1920 and the agreement was concluded in August 1920. In February 1921, the British Parliament approved the agreement and Egypt was asked to send another mission to London with full powers to conclude a definitive treaty, Adli Pasha led this mission, which arrived in June 1921. The mission returned to Egypt in disgust, in December 1921, the British authorities in Cairo imposed martial law and once again deported Zaghlul. British influence, however, continued to dominate Egypts political life and fostered fiscal, administrative, Britain retained control of the Canal Zone, Sudan and Egypts external protection. Representing the Wafd Party, Zaghlul was elected Prime Minister in 1924 and he demanded that Britain recognize the Egyptian sovereignty in Sudan and the unity of the Nile Valley
10.
United Arab Republic
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The United Arab Republic, alternatively referred to, mostly in Israel in the 1960s-70s, as the United Arab Commonwealth was a short-lived political union between Egypt and Syria. The union began in 1958 and existed until 1961, when Syria seceded from the union after the 1961 Syrian coup détat, Egypt continued to be known officially as the United Arab Republic until 1971. The president was Gamal Abdel Nasser and it was a member of the United Arab States, a loose confederation with North Yemen which in 1961 dissolved along with the Republic. Pan-Arab sentiment traditionally was very strong in Syria, and Nasser was a popular hero-figure throughout the Arab world following the Suez War of 1956, there was thus considerable popular support in Syria for union with Nassers Egypt. The Arab Socialist Baath Party was the advocate of such a union. This caused the Syrian Crisis of 1957 after which Syrians intensified their efforts to unite with Egypt, according to Abdel Latif Boghdadi, Nasser initially resisted a total union with Syria, favoring instead a federal union. However, Nasser was more afraid of a Communist takeover and agreed on a total merger, Syria had had a democratic government since the overthrow of Adib al-Shishaklis military regime in 1954, and popular pressure for Arab unity was reflected in the composition of parliament. When on 11 January 1958 al-Bizri led a Syrian delegation composed of officers to Cairo. Nassers final terms for the union were decisive and non-negotiable, a plebiscite, the dissolution of parties, while the plebiscite seemed reasonable to most Syrian elites, the latter two conditions were extremely worrisome. They believed it would destroy life in Syria. Despite these concerns, the Syrian officials knew it was too late to turn back. The members of the elite in Syria viewed the merger with Egypt as the lesser of two evils. They believed that Nassers terms were unfair, but given the pressure that their government was undergoing. Egyptian and Syrian leaders signed the protocols, although Azem did so reluctantly, Nasser became the republics president and very soon carried out a crackdown against the Syrian Communists and opponents of the union which included dismissing Bizri and Azem from their posts. Advocates of the believed that Nasser would use the Baath Party for ruling Syria. Unfortunately for the Baathists, it was never Nassers intention to share a measure of power. Nasser gave each of the provinces two vice-presidents, assigning Boghdadi and Abdel Hakim Amer to Egypt and Sabri al-Assali and Akram El-Hourani—a leader of the Baath—to Syria, the new constitution of 1958 was adopted. Though Nasser allowed former Baath Party members to hold prominent political positions, during the winter and the spring of 1959–60, Nasser slowly squeezed prominent Syrians out of positions of influence. In the Syrian Ministry of Industry, for example, seven of the top thirteen positions were filled by Egyptians, in the General Petroleum Authority, four of the top six officials were Egyptian
Kingdom of Egypt
United Arab Republic
Egypt
Egyptian Army
Field Marshal