Egypt will remain a “strong and influential country,” Field-Marshal Hussein Tantawi, head of Egypt’s ruling military council, said in a speech to military cadets on Sunday morning.

“We will not allow anyone from inside or outside to affect Egypt or the path its people have chosen,” Tantawi said. He went on to urge the audience to “have faith in yourselves, in Egypt, and in the armed forces, which never abandoned this nation.”

The military chief also called on the public to ignore what he called “rumours” regarding alleged rights violations by the armed forces.

“I would never say that there are Egyptian traitors,” Tantawi said of those who he asserted were spreading such rumours. “They’re just people who don’t understand what’s going on.”