Washington’s unquestioning embrace of el-Sissi, whom President Donald Trump has called a “great guy,” emboldened the Egyptian leader to act with little fear of American pushback. The military, which the amendments declare as the “guardian and protector” of Egypt’s Constitution, would control the appointment of the defence minister. Supporters say that el-Sissi needs to extend his rule to introduce urgent economic reforms and to stabilise Egypt after the turbulence unleashed by the Arab Spring in 2011. In speeches, el-Sissi frequently refers to chaos in Libya, Syria and Yemen as dark examples of what Egypt could become. The news media is almost entirely under government control and torture is common in Egyptian prisons, rights groups say.

Source: bd News24 February 15, 2019 05:15 UTC