President out, defense minister in as head of SCAF

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) will now be headed by the defense minister, not the president, the state-owned Middle East News Agency reported on Thursday.

Interim President Adly Mansour issued a presidential decree instituting the change earlier in the day. The decree also stipulates that the president’s chief of staff would now serve as SCAF’s deputy head, while the Defense Ministry’s secretary general would also serve as SCAF’s secretary general.

The defense minister would decide which deputies should join SCAF, according to the decree, and is to call on the council to convene every three months, or whenever necessary. Any decisions would be taken by the majority of attendees.

The president would retain some powers, including the ability to appoint Armed Forces leaders to SCAF and to call on the council to convene, and in that case head the meeting.

SCAF would now be comprised of the chief of staff and the heads of the Navy, Air Force and Air Defense, as well as deputies of the minister of defense, the ministry’s secretary general and the head of border patrol, the Armed Forces’ chief of operations, and the heads of the military’s management and training, logistics and supplies, arms, engineering, financial affairs and military judiciary divisions.

Commanders of the Second and Third Army, the military commanders of the central, northern, southern and western regions, and the directors of military and intelligence and officer affairs would also be SCAF members.