Hazem el-Beblawi nominated Egypt Prime Minister

Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour on Tuesday nominated former finance minister Hazem el Beblawi as the interim prime minister, the local media reported.

The appointment comes on a day when the Muslim Brotherhood rejected a road map for the return of constitutional rule issued in a decree by Mansour on Monday night.

Beblawi, 76, is the third name to come up for the position after Mohamed Elbaradei, 71, former head of the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Ziad Bahaa el Din.

He was finance minister in 2011 after a popular peoples’ revolt ousted President Hosny Mubarak.

The media reports said ElBaradei, a moderate to the left of centre, has now been proposed as deputy president responsible for foreign affairs.

The second biggest Islamist party, Salafist Nour, has accepted the nomination of Beblawi but is yet to agree on ElBaradei.

The military which ousted President Mohammed Morsi last Wednesday night lost the support of the Salafist Nour after Monday dawn’s killing of 51 protestors by the military at the headquarters of the Presidential Guard in Cairo, but appears to have won it back.

The Army chief, Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has meanwhile on Tuesday responded to the uncertain political situation in the North African country saying the stalling or disruption of the process would not be accepted.

The Muslim Brotherhood on Tuesday rejected a road map saying nothing short of the the reinstatement of President Mohammed Morsi would appease them.

The local media quoted senior officials of the Brotherhood, the group that ousted Morsi belongs to, as describing the decree issued on Monday night as ‘invalid’.

Under the road map, a panel would be named in 15 days to review controversial constitution, which was approved during the administration of Morsi.

The reviewed document would be put to a referendum within four months after which parliamentary elections would be held in early 2014. Thereafter, presidential elections would held when parliament convenes.

But the Muslim Brotherhood, which has been expressing its extreme anger at Wednesday’s overthrow of Morsi and the killing of 51 of its supporters by the military on Monday morning, says the decree comes from an illegitimate president hence making it illegitimate and invalid.

The development comes in the wake of media reports that the Tamarod (Rebels), whose sit-in at Tahrir Square in Cairo apparently began the crisis engulfing Egypt, had also said it was not consulted on the timetable.

The Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership has also declared an “uprising” following the killing of the protestors near the Presidential Guard barracks where they believe ousted President Mohammed Morsi is being kept.

While the Brotherhood said they were shot at without provocation as they prepared for dawn prayers, the military said soldiers at the Presidential Guard headquarters were attacked by ‘terrorists’ with guns, bombs and rocks.

Mansour has called for restraint and promised investigations into the killings.

The supporters of Morsi are also preparing to bury the dead with the North African remaining dangerously split down the middle.

The Egyptian military chief, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in a nationwide television broadcast on Wednesday night, announced the removal of Morsi from power and the suspension of the constitution.

Morsi was accused of putting his religious priorities before the development of the country.

The African Union (AU) on Friday suspended Egypt’s membership of the 54-member bloc, saying the overthrow of President Morsi constituted an unconstitutional change of government.

The AU’s Constitutive Act prohibits an unconstitutional change of government.

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