A top newspaper editor known to be close to President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi is hinting that the Egyptian leader should be allowed to rule beyond the maximum two, four-year terms set by the constitution.

Yasser Rizq, chairman of the state-owned al-Akhbar daily, did not explicitly call for amending the constitutional clause limiting the number of terms a president can serve, but argued that time is running short for the emergence of another leader who "can shoulder the responsibilities of a head of state of a country of Egypt's weight and prestige."

El-Sissi led the military's 2013 ouster of Mohammed Morsi, an Islamist president whose one-year rule proved divisive. He was elected to office a year later and, running virtually unopposed, won a second term following an election in March