Former defense minister and military commander Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, hailed as a hero in Egypt for his role in the July 2013 ouster of Islamist president and Muslim Brotherhood member Mohamed Morsi, easily won the country’s presidential election with more than 90 percent of the vote, according to results revealed Thursday.
In a pre-election interview, El-Sisi said the Muslim Brotherhood would be “finished” under his watch. The Brotherhood has seen its fortunes decline precipitously since last summer. Morsi and dozens of other Brotherhood leaders are awaiting trial on charges of inciting violence and supporting foreign terrorist organizations. In March, an Egyptian judge sentenced an additional 529 Brotherhood supporters to death for the killing of a police officer during pro-Brotherhood protests last August.
El-Sisi has said he would honor the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty as president.
“I respect all international accords, including the treaty with Israel,” he said in pre-election statements.
Israel and Egypt have a shared interest in cracking down on Islamic terror groups in the Sinai Peninsula and in targeting the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is Egypt’s strong man right now and has been fighting against radical Islam and against the Muslim Brothers. This is very positive both for Egypt, but also for Israel and the entire Middle East,” former Israeli Ambassador to Egypt Zvi Mazel told JNS.org in January.
