The official Spokesman of the Presidency of the Republic Adnene Mansar said, Thursday, that the Presidency of the Republic "knows the reasons for the resignation of General Mohamed Salah Hamdi, Chief of Staff of the land army and reserves the right not to reveal them for the time being."
Mansar said, during a meeting with the press held after accepting the resignation of General Hamdi by interim President of the Republic Moncef Marzouki, that "in his letter of resignation, the Chief of Staff did not mention the reasons of his decision and had only evoked "personal reasons".
The resignation of Hamdi, presented last July 23 to Minister of Defence Ghazi Jribi, had aroused several questions.
As regards the successor of the resigning General, Mansar specified that the Presidency of the Republic had requested the Ministry of Defence a list of names of the senior army officers to choose, as part of consensus, a successor in line with the law of the provisional organisation of public authorities.
Asked on the existence of conflicts between the Defence Minister and General Hamdi, Mansar said that "the Presidency of the Republic reserves the right to assess the action of the military institution, which must remain, according to him, away from the political dealings." He underlined that Marzouki accepted the resignation of Hamdi, and attempted in vain to convince him to reconsider his decision.
© Tunis-Afrique Presse 2014
