CAIRO
Interim president Adly Mansour on Monday issued a presidential decree promoting army chief and defense minister Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to field marshal, the highest rank in the Egyptian military hierarchy.
The promotion comes amid widespread speculation that al-Sisi plans to step down as defense minister in order to run for president.
Sisi is widely perceived as the main architect of last July's ouster of Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first freely elected president, by the army.
On Sunday, Mansour officially amended an army-imposed transitional roadmap to allow upcoming presidential elections to precede parliamentary polls.
The roadmap, unveiled in the immediate wake of Morsi's ouster, had initially stipulated that parliamentary polls be held before presidential elections, following the endorsement of a new constitution.
Egypt's new constitution, however, gives the interim president the right to modify the roadmap as he sees fit.
Born in 1954, al-Sisi graduated from Egypt's Military College in 1997. He served as a paratrooper in the army before being made commander of Egypt's northern military zone.
Al-Sisi also served as Military Intelligence chief during the January 25 uprising, which unseated autocratic president Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.
The top general had also been a member of Egypt's Supreme Military Council, which took over from Mubarak until Morsi's election in mid-2012.
Morsi appointed al-Sisi as defense minister.
A year later, the army chief ousted the elected president following mass protests against the latter's leadership.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
