(CNN) -- As military and security veterans take top roles in President Hosni Mubarak's new government, it's unclear in the tumult whether their allegiance ultimately sides with the embattled Mubarak or with demonstrators demanding a regime change, experts said Monday.
The military's prominence in the new cabinet starts at the top: Egypt's former air force chief and aviation minister, Ahmed Shafiq, is the new prime minister. He was appointed by Mubarak, who also rose to power through the air force, with Shafiq even under his command in the 1970s, analysts said. The air force is regarded as the most privileged branch of the armed forces, with extensive perks.
Mubarak's intelligence chief, Omar Suleiman, is now the vice president, a post that Mubarak had left vacant the past 30 years.
Even while these old-guard figures were taking over the new government, the military -- long regarded as Egypt's bulwark for a stable and secular regime -- issued a statement Monday that it "will not use violence" against protesters.
"The military has to be careful," said Reva Bhalla, director of analysis for the global intelligence company Stratfor of Austin, Texas, which provides online analysis. "There's this perception that's been held by the opposition that the military is the gateway to a post-Mubarak Egypt". CNN
