Omar Suleiman, Mubarak deputy who may be key to resolving Egypt protests

Spymaster appointed to vice-presidency enjoys military’s full confidence and is authorised to tackle fundamental reforms Omar Suleiman, Hosni Mubarak’s intelligence chief and now his vice-president, is the keeper of Egypt’s secrets, a classic behind-the-scenes operator who has been intimately involved in the most sensitive issues of national security and foreign policy for nearly 20 years. Now, as mass protests continue in Cairo and elsewhere, this discreet spymaster faces intense scrutiny at home and abroad as he holds the key to the political future of the Arab world’s largest country, with profound implications for the region and the world. Late on Monday, Suleiman went on TV to announce that he had been ordered by Mubarak to tackle “constitutional and legislative reforms” and, crucially, to include opposition parties in the process. That looked like an attempt to defuse the crisis by entering a dialogue it is hoped will ensure the survival of the regime. Suleiman’s appointment as vice-president on Saturday morning carried two highly significant messages: for the first time since coming to power in 1981 Mubarak now has a designated successor, finally quashing speculation that it would be his son Gamal; and that successor has the full confidence of the powerful military. Suleiman, 74, is bald and mustachioed, and despite his military bearing has a penchant for dark suits and striped ties. Acquaintances often remark on his exquisite manners. In 1995, two years after taking over Egypt’s General Intelligence Service (known, as in all Arab countries, as the mukhabarat ), he saved the president’s life during an assassination attempt in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, having insisted his boss travel in an armoured car. He also played a key role in defeating the insurrection mounted by Egyptian armed groups such as Islamic Jihad, some of whose members went on to found al-Qaida. For 30 years before that he served in the army, fighting in Yemen as well as in the 1967 and 1973 wars against Israel, rising to be director of military intelligence. Like many Egyptian officers of his generation he was trained in the-then Soviet Union. In recent years one of Suleiman’s biggest preoccupations has been dealing with the volatile Palestinian file, mediating between the western-backed Fatah movement and the Islamists of Hamas – a group with special resonance in Egypt because of its control of the Gaza Strip and its links to the banned Muslim Brotherhood. He has also been involved in the tangled affairs of Sudan and led mediation attempts between rebels and the government in Yemen. Suleiman figures prominently in the US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks last year. In a meeting with a US military delegation in April 2009 he explained that “his over-arching regional goal was combating radicalism, especially in Gaza, Iran, and Sudan”. The US and other western governments still see him as a safe pair of hands as Egypt’s future hangs in the balance. Egypt Protest Middle East Ian Black guardian.co.uk

Posted by on February 1, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry