Ahmed Kamel – Egypt Daily News
President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has authorized the minister of defense and military production to exercise a defined set of presidential powers under the country’s General Mobilization Law, a decision officials and military affairs experts have described as a routine administrative measure rather than a sign of imminent war.
The presidential decree was issued on September 22 and published in Egypt’s Official Gazette. It delegates authority under Articles 9, 12 and 24 of Law No. 87 of 1960 for one year. The measure is scheduled to take effect in November and applies to the minister in charge of defense and military production.
The decision has attracted public attention because it comes amid heightened regional tensions and recurring concerns about Egypt’s military readiness. However, Mohamed al-Ghabbary, a former director of Egypt’s National Defense College, said the decree should not be interpreted as an emergency declaration or as evidence that the government is preparing for an immediate military confrontation.
Ghabbary said similar delegations are issued when a new defense minister assumes office. He described the arrangement as a legal and administrative mechanism intended to ensure that mobilization procedures can be managed efficiently by the ministry responsible for implementing them.
Under Egypt’s constitutional and legal structure, the president remains the country’s supreme authority in national defense matters and chairs the National Defense Council. The decree allows the defense minister to exercise specific powers on the president’s behalf, particularly in areas connected with military organization, personnel, logistics and the use of national resources.
The delegation does not transfer all presidential authority to the defense minister. Instead, it covers selected provisions of the 1960 General Mobilization Law. That law provides the legal framework for expanding the country’s military capacity when necessary and for coordinating civilian resources with national defense requirements.
Ghabbary explained that mobilization does not necessarily mean that Egypt is entering a wartime footing. Armed forces routinely conduct exercises that require particular units to operate at full strength. Reservists may be called up for training, exercises or other military activities without the country declaring a state of war or a general emergency.
He said armies normally maintain a force structure that includes both active-duty personnel and reservists. During peacetime, not every unit operates at its maximum authorized strength. Mobilization enables the military to increase staffing and readiness when specific circumstances require it, whether for training, a national emergency or an armed conflict.
The former military official estimated that peacetime forces in many countries may operate at between 50 and 70 percent of their potential strength, depending on national arrangements. The figure is not a universal standard, but it illustrates the distinction between the regular peacetime structure and the larger force that can be assembled through mobilization.
Ghabbary also rejected suggestions that the presidential decree constituted a declaration of war. He said such a step would involve additional political, constitutional and security measures, including the possible declaration of a state of emergency and the adoption of a broader national strategy for dealing with a major threat.
“The decision is neither a declaration of war nor a declaration of a state of emergency,” he said, according to reports of the program. He added that public concern was understandable given regional developments, but argued that specialists had a responsibility to explain the technical meaning of the measure rather than leave the public to rely on speculation.
The General Mobilization Law is not limited to soldiers, weapons and military bases. It also enables the state to identify and organize civilian assets that could be needed during a crisis, including transportation, food supplies, industrial capacity and other infrastructure.
Abu Bakr al-Gendy, a former head of Egypt’s Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics, said a central part of the system involves maintaining databases and inventories of civilian resources. These records allow authorities to identify available vehicles, warehouses, transport routes and other assets without beginning an inventory only after an emergency has started.
Gendy pointed to the unrest that followed Egypt’s 2011 uprising as an example of how civilian mobilization mechanisms can be used. Disruptions to transportation networks affected the movement of wheat and other essential supplies between governorates. The armed forces used transport vehicles to move grain from locations including Alexandria and Suez to areas that needed additional supplies.
According to Gendy, the ability to respond quickly depended on previous planning and knowledge of the country’s available resources. Military transport units were deployed to help distribute wheat and food supplies, while routes and shipments were secured during a period of instability.
The example illustrates that mobilization powers can be used for logistical and civil-support purposes as well as conventional military operations. In practice, the system is designed to help the government coordinate national resources during emergencies, whether those emergencies involve conflict, serious internal disruption or major infrastructure problems.
The decree comes as Egypt monitors a volatile regional environment involving conflicts and military tensions across the Middle East. Officials have not linked the measure to any particular crisis, and no government statement has indicated that Egypt has changed its military posture.
For now, the authorization appears to give the defense ministry greater administrative flexibility in applying existing mobilization procedures. It does not, by itself, order a call-up of reservists, place the country under emergency rule or authorize military action.
The measure is therefore best understood as a formal delegation of limited powers under an existing law. Its significance will depend on how the authority is used and whether the government issues further orders affecting military personnel, civilian resources or national emergency preparations. In the absence of such measures, Egyptian experts say the decree should not be treated as evidence that the country is preparing for war.
