CAIRO — The ruling Muslim Brotherhood has fired Egypt’s military command.

President Mohammed Morsi, the nation’s first Islamist president, has dismissed many of the members of the ruling council. Morsi, a Brotherhood leader, fired the chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Defense Minister Hussein Tantawi, as well as the military’s chief of staff.

“Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi has been transferred into retirement from today,” presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said. “We thank the field marshal for his invaluable services to the homeland.”

At a televised news conference on Aug. 12, Ali said the 76-year-old Tantawi would be replaced by Col. Gen. Abdul Latifi Sisi. Sisi, 57 and regarded as close to the Brotherhood, has been commander of military intelligence and a member of the ruling military council.

“He is not a member of the Brotherhood,” Moataz Abdul Fattah, a professor at Cairo University, said. “He is merely a religious man.”

Rada Hafez, commander of the Air Force, was named minister of state for military production. Hafez was said to have replaced Lt. Gen. Abdul Aziz Seif Eddin.

Morsi named another military council member, Gen. Mohammed Assar, as deputy defense minister. Later, Assar said Morsi’s appointments were coordinated with Tantawi and the council. The council did not issue any statement.

The president replaced Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Sami Anan, who played a leading role in the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak, with Gen. Sidki Sobhi, the 56-year-old commander of the Third Army.

Over the last year, Sobhi was sent to help calm unrest in such areas as Suez City and the Sinai Peninsula. Ali, the presidential spokesman, said Anan and Tantawi would become advisers to Morsi.

“I did not mean to send a negative message about anyone,” Morsi later said. “My aim was to benefit the nation and people.”

In another move, Egyptian Navy commander Vice Adm. Mohab Mamish was dismissed and appointed director-general of the Suez Canal Authority. Mamish’s successor was not immediately announced.

“This is an attempt by the Brotherhood to take over the country,” former Egyptian parliamentarian Mustafa Bakri said.

Morsi, in a decree that stunned Western diplomats, also canceled a military order that stripped the president of much of his authority. In June, the military council said the president would be unable to declare war or appoint commanders.

Both Anan and Tantawi were regarded as close to the United States, which relays $1.3 billion in annual military assistance. Over the last few months, the administration of President Barack Obama assured Congress that Anan and Tantawi would stop any attempt to downgrade military relations with Washington, particularly restricting U.S. access to the Suez Canal.

On Aug. 8, Morsi replaced Egypt’s intelligence chief as well as senior security officials. The president also ordered a reorganization of the Interior Ministry in wake of an attack on Egyptian positions along the Israeli border in which 16 soldiers were killed on Aug. 5.

“These appointments foiled plans of the counter-revolution and exposed the third party, which wants to obstruct the path of Egypt’s democratic transition,” Essam Arian, vice president of the ruling Freedom and Justice Party, said. (Copyright © 2012 East West Services, Inc. 08/13/12)