Mohammed Hussein Tantawi

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Mohammed Hussein Tantawi (2002)

Mohammed Hussein Tantawi ( Arabic محمد حسين طنطاوى سليمان, DMG Muḥammad Ḥusain Ṭanṭāwī Sulaimān ; * October 31, 1935 in Cairo ; † September 21, 2021 ibid) was an Egyptian politician and military officer , with the rank of field marshal from 1989 .

From 1991 to 2012, he succeeded Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb as Defense Minister and Minister for Military Production. After the resignation of President Husni Mubarak in February 2011, Tantawi temporarily headed the official business of Egypt as chairman of the Supreme Military Council in cooperation with the Egyptian Constitutional Court .

On August 12, 2012, President Mohammed Morsi removed him from his posts as Defense Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces with immediate effect and retired . He was succeeded by Abd al-Fattah as-Sisi .

Life

Tantawi, whose family comes from Tanta , studied military science , then became a military attaché in Pakistan and later commander of the presidential guard.

He was involved in important wars in his country and fought as a soldier, later as an infantry officer in the Suez War in 1956 against France , England and Israel , and also in the Six Day War in 1967 and in the Yom Kippur War in 1973 against Israel. In 1991 he became Minister of Defense, Minister for the Production of Military Goods and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. Under his leadership, Egypt joined the United States in the Second Gulf War in 1991 .

On February 4, 2011, Tantawi became the first member of the government to visit his troops in Tahrir Square and tried to convince demonstrators that most of their demands had already been met and that they should go home. After the resignation of the previous President Husni Mubarak on February 11, 2011, Tantawi took over the role of head of government as chairman of the Supreme Military Council until the announced free elections. With the takeover of power, the constitutional legitimacy invoked by Mubarak and Omar Suleiman was broken by the military. According to the Egyptian constitution, the President of Parliament or the Chairman of the Constitutional Court should have succeeded Mubarak.

As the highest military officer until August 12, 2012, Tantawi was responsible for investigating allegations of torture against the army.

Tantawi died in Cairo in September 2021 at the age of 85.

criticism

Tantawi with US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates (2008)

Middle-ranked Egyptian officers named Tantawi "Mubarak's poodle" after a 2008 dispatch published by Wikileaks . Tantawi is “incompetent”, there is a “culture of cadaver obedience ” in the troops , promoted only on the basis of loyalty, not performance.

Tantawi was considered Mubarak's protégé and a candidate for his successor in the country's presidency. US diplomats described the field marshal as "reform-resistant, charming and distinguished"; other observers called his rhetoric and style as archaic as the Mubaraks. Israel described it as an obstacle in the fight against arms smuggling on the Egyptian border with the Gaza Strip .

Web links

Commons : Mohammed Hussein Tantawi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Former Egyptian defense minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi dies at 85
  2. ^ The democracy movement drives Mubarak out of office , Reuters.com, February 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ Egypt's president breaks the power of the military. Defense Minister Tantawi sacked. Sueddeutsche Zeitung , August 12, 2012, accessed on August 12, 2012 .
  4. ↑ Egypt's President Morsi fires army chief Tantawi. Power struggle. Spiegel Online , August 12, 2012, accessed August 12, 2012 .
  5. ^ President Mursi dismisses army chief Tantawi. Scandal in Egypt. NZZ Online , August 12, 2012, accessed on August 12, 2012 .
  6. ^ Democracy movement drives Mubarak out of office. Reuters , November 2, 2011, accessed August 12, 2012 .
  7. ^ The protagonists of the new Egypt , Zeit Online from February 12, 2011.
  8. ^ "Mubaraks Pudel" steps forward , Süddeutsche.de from February 12, 2011.
  9. ↑ General Hussein Tantawi: Der Mächtige , FAZ from February 12, 2011
  10. ↑ Field Marshal Tantawi: Close confidante replaces Mubarak , Focus Online from February 11, 2011.
  11. ↑ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110204/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_egypt ( Memento from February 5, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  12. ↑ http://blogs.aljazeera.net/node/3164
  13. ↑ Egypt is free. In: ORF . February 11, 2011, accessed February 11, 2011 .
  14. ↑ Field Marshal Tantawi as a helmsman in Egypt , NZZ Online from February 11, 2011.
  15. ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/feb/09/egypt-army-detentions-torture-accused
  16. ↑ http://213.251.145.96/cable/2008/09/08CAIRO2091.html ( Memento from December 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  17. ↑ Washington Times article, Jan. 30, 2011
  18. ↑ Obama is negotiating with the military. In: the daily newspaper . February 4, 2011, accessed February 4, 2011 .
  19. ↑ “Mubarak's Poodle” steps forward from the background. (No longer available online.) In: Wiener Zeitung . February 1, 2011, formerly in the original ; Retrieved February 12, 2011 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.wienerzeitung.at  
  20. ↑ Wikileaks: Israel's Anger over Abbas and Tantawi , Zeit Online, April 8, 2011.
predecessor government office successor
Youssef Sabri Abu Taleb Egyptian Defense Minister
1991–2012 		Abdelfatah el-Sisi
personal data
SURNAME Tantawi, Mohammed Hussein
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Egyptian politician, defense minister and field marshal
BIRTH DATE October 31, 1935
PLACE OF BIRTH Cairo
DATE OF DEATH September 21, 2021
PLACE OF DEATH Cairo