Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi 'emerges as Egypt's strongman' " (He) rejects any attempt to overstep it, calls on the armed forces to withdraw their warning and rejects any dictates, domestic or foreign," it said. Kamel al-Sayyed, political scientist at the University of Cairo said that Sisi had made steps towards a political agreement in the past. "General Sisi had already tried to promote a national consensus at the end of last year during the crisis around the new constitution, but met with refusal from the Muslim Brotherhood," he said. At 58, Sisi is 20 years younger than his predecessor, Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, a veteran of the Arab-Israeli wars and one of Mubarak's closest allies. When Morsi sidelined Tantawi in August 2012 and replaced him with Sisi, there was speculation of a possible alliance between the military and the new Islamist leaders, to which the army had previously been hostile. Even if he is part of an Islamist-dominated government, General Sisi, who enjoyed a successful career in the top brass before taking up the post of head of military intelligence, seemed to be a military insider. He has said in the past he is keen on "increasing the efficiency of the armed forces," seen to be outdated and currently struggling to restore order in the troubled Sinai Peninsula area. Known to be devout, Sisi was accused of being too close to the Islamists when he was nominated to the post. But like many Egyptian officers, he is also a fervent admirer of the former nationalist president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Born in Cairo in November 1954, he graduated from Egypt's military academy in 1977 with a diploma in military sciences. He also went for training in Britain in 1992 and in the United States in 2006. Egypt's army has close ties to the US military, which provides it with considerable training and equipment. Since the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement in 1979, Washington has been a major backer of Egypt's army, currently providing support to the tune of $1.3 billion every year.