CAIRO: The US predicted in 2006 that then-president Hosni Mubarak would name then-intelligence chief Omar Suleiman his first vice president, a recently revealed partial extract of a Wikileaks cable said.
On June 14, 2005, London-based Financial Times published a story about Mubarak’s intention to name a vice president following the first multi-candidate presidential elections that was to be held later in September of the same year.
“We reached out to the reporter who filed the story, who confirmed to us that Suleiman Awad, a key aide to Mubarak and his official spokesman, had made the remark, on-the-record, over dinner with her and several British colleagues,” the cable said.
“Of the [contacts]…who gave the story credence, all agreed that intelligence chief general Omar Suleiman was the most likely to be named to the post,” the leaked document added.
The cable said some US embassy contacts approached for reaction were in turn surprised, bemused, and skeptical of the report.
“Of eight contacts we spoke with, only one, a prominent newspaper publisher and activist had heard of the story. Most agreed the timing of such an announcement, and the means selected to convey it, were strange, the cable said.
Suleiman was one of Mubarak’s closest advisors who enjoyed an increased public profile in earlier years with his role as Egypt’s point man on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The post of vice president had been vacant since Mubarak took office in October 1981 following the assassination of president Anwar Sadat.
Mubarak named Suleiman his VP years after the cable was confidentially sent, following the nationwide Jan. 25 uprising demanding his ouster.
In addition to other concessions including a promise not to run for a sixth term, Mubarak’s move appeared to be an attempt to appease the angry crowds. But protesters, mainly in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and other parts of Egypt, refused to leave the streets before Mubarak stepped down. He did so on Feb. 11, handing over power to the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF).
A day earlier, Mubarak had handed over his powers to Suleiman. A pale-faced Suleiman, who was VP for less than a month, read out Mubarak’s stepping down letter in a brief TV appearance on Feb. 11.
Over the years, Suleiman’s name was often brought up in speculations of possible successors to Mubarak. He provided for a more favorable candidate than Mubarak’s son, Gamal.
However, when posters were spotted across the capital promoting “Suleiman for president” early September 2010, security officials made sure that no newspapers ran the news. Printed copies were burnt before they left print houses and others were made to pull the story. At the time, Mubarak and his son Gamal were in Washington, DC.
Mubarak is currently facing trial before a criminal court on corruption charges and ordering the killing of protesters during the Jan. 25 uprising. – Additional reporting by Rana Muhammad Taha.
