CAIRO (AP) — Facing unrelenting pressure from Muslim Brotherhood protesters, Egypt's military chief sought to justify his decision to remove Mohmmed Morsi from office, saying Sunday in a televised speech that the Islamist leader had violated his popular mandate and antagonized state institutions.
The comments by Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — his first since the president's ouster nearly two weeks ago — came as the designated interim prime minister pushed ahead with talks to form a new Cabinet this week.
Reform advocate Mohamed ElBaradei was sworn in as Egypt's interim vice president for international relations on Sunday. The move reinforces the role of liberals in the new leadership who are strongly opposed to the Brotherhood.
Several secular-minded candidates also have been approached to lead the foreign, finance, culture, information and other key ministries. Nabil Fahmy, who served as Egypt's former ambassador to the United States for over a decade under Hosni Mubarak, was tapped to be foreign minister, according to state media.
The United States sent its No. 2 diplomat in the State Department, William Burns, to Cairo to meet with interim government officials as well as civil society and business leaders during his two-day visit. Burns is the first high-level American official to visit since Morsi's ouster.

Many in the international community fear the ouster of Morsi, Egypt's first democratically elected president, would undermine Egypt's transition to democracy.

The State Department said Burns would underscore U.S. support for the Egyptian people and a transition leading to an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government. The United States has called for Morsi's release. Since his ouster, Morsi has been held incommunicado at an undisclosed location.
El-Sissi said the armed forces acted to remove Morsi on July 3 according to the will of the people as the country was sliding toward deeper polarization and more violence. The Islamist leader was the first democratically chosen leader after a narrow victory in elections last year.
"The armed forces sincerely accepted the choice of the people, but then political decision-making began stumbling," el-Sissi said. "The armed forces remained committed to what it considered the legitimacy of the ballot box, even though that very legitimacy began to do as it pleased and in a way that contradicted the basis and the origin of this legitimacy."
Morsi's election came after months of turmoil following the 2011 revolution that removed autocratic leader Hosni Mubarak from office, in a rocky transition that was marred by persistent protests, political disagreements and an economy teetering on bankruptcy.

His supporters say the military staged a coup in a bid to undermine the rising influence of Islamists, and thousands have camped out for days near a mosque in eastern Cairo to demand he be reinstated. The Muslim Brotherhood, which propelled Morsi to power, has called for massive protests Monday to escalate pressure on the military. Some Muslim Brotherhood leaders have called for el-Sissi to be removed, and put on trial accusing him of treason.

Brotherhood spokesman Gehad el-Haddad responded to el-Sissi's remarks, saying that the military had no right to act on behalf of the people of Egypt except through "orders of their elected commander in chief," meaning Morsi. In comments posted on Twitter, he said the military also has no right to decide which protest is worthy enough to represent the people.
Morsi was ousted by the military after four days of protests by millions of his opponents.
El-Sissi said Morsi "entered into a conflict with the judiciary, the media, the police and the public opinion. Then (he) also entered into a conflict with the armed forces." He didn't elaborate on the nature of the conflict with the military, but said that comments about the military offended "and were considered a stab to the national pride."

El-Sissi, speaking to an auditorium filled with military officers, said the armed forces could no longer stand on the sidelines as millions of Egyptians took to the streets to call for the Islamist leader to step down over allegations he was abusing his power.

The military chief said he frequently advised Morsi and finally reached out to him before giving him a 48-hour ultimatum to reconcile with opponents and address public demands. He said he sent two envoys, including then Prime Minister Hesham Kandil and a trusted legal expert, urging the president to hold a referendum on whether voters still supported his presidency, but the suggestion was rejected out of hand.

El-Sissi appealed to all parties, in an apparent nod to Morsi's supporters, to participate in the new transition, saying it is overseen by an unbiased leader and will restore the right of people to choose.

But continuing its crackdown on the Brotherhood leadership, Egypt's new chief prosecutor ordered frozen the assets of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and at least 13 other senior members of the group pending investigations into deadly violence outside the organization's headquarters in Cairo and the Republic Guard forces club.
Meanwhile, the military-backed government pressed forward with its transition plan. ElBaradei, a 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, was sworn in as vice president for international relations, although his exact mandate was not clear. The former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog based in Vienna, returned home to assume a role in the anti-Mubarak uprising and became one of the most visible leaders in the badly fractured Egyptian liberal and secular opposition to Morsi's government.
Khaled Dawoud, a spokesman for the National Salvation Front, a coalition of largely secular groups, said ElBaradei was no longer the head of the umbrella organization.

Designated prime minister Hazem el-Beblawi also met with a number of candidates for his new Cabinet, which is expected to be announced on Wednesday.

Others expected on the roster are Mohammed Mukhtar Gomaa — who works in the office of the head of the top learning institute in the Muslim Sunni world Al-Azhar — as head of the religious endowment ministry. Gomaa, who also heads the faculty of Islamic and Arabic studies in Al-Azhar university, was seen as nod to moderate Islam.
The fast-track transitional timetable included also appointing two panels to amend the constitution passed under Morsi. Those changes would be put to a referendum within about 4 1/2 months, followed by parliamentary elections and the presidential elections.
Violence in the aftermath of Morsi's ouster peaked a week ago Monday when the military opened fire on Brotherhood supporters who were holding a sit-in outside the Republican Guard forces club, leading to hours of clashes. More than 50 protesters were killed and hundreds wounded. The Brotherhood claimed the military opened fire on protesters, while the army says it was responding to Morsi supporters trying to storm the Republican Guard building.

Human Rights Watch said it appeared that "the military and police used unnecessary force" and that prosecutors have investigated only Brotherhood supporters and leaders for their alleged roles in the clashes, but not security forces.

"It is not clear from the footage which side used live ammunition first," according to HRW's statement Sunday, which added that "what is clear... is that the army responded with lethal force that far exceeded any apparent threat to the lives of military personnel."
Meanwhile, violence was on the rise in the restive Sinai peninsula. Soon after midnight, militants fired a missile at a moving armored police vehicle south of North Sinai's capital el-Arish, hitting instead a nearby bus carrying workers going to a local cement factory, security officials said. Three factory workers were killed and 16 were injured, including three in serious condition, medical officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Security officials said militants also blew up a police station under construction in central Sinai by detonating explosive devices, leaving a resident seriously injured.
The secretary general of the Brotherhood's political arm, Hussein Ibrahim, condemned the violence on his Facebook page. Ibrahim called the attacks "staged" with the intention of dragging the country toward violence, and in turn justifying "the coup against legitimacy."
Militant groups have lashed out following the military ouster of Morsi, targeting police stations and security checkpoints and vowing to drive the military out of the area.
In the past 10 days, at least eight security officers have been killed. Christians in the area have also been targeted. Two Christians were killed, one a priest. A gas pipeline to Jordan was bombed, ending a lull in such strikes.

Egypt's interim prime minister has filled several key ministerial positions as efforts continue to assemble a new cabinet. Meanwhile opposition leader Mohammed ElBaradei has been sworn in as interim vice president.

Former ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy, accepted the post of foreign minister on Sunday. His appointment is widely considered a symbol of the emphasis the new government places on relations with the United States, which offers $1.3 billion (995.3 million euros) a year in military aid.

Meanwhile, news agency Reuters reported that liberal economist Ahmed Galal agreed to take on the role of finance minister and senior Judge Mohamed Amin el-Mahdy was appointed as justice minister.

The appointments came as caretaker Prime Minister Hazem El-Beblawi (pictured above left) held a second day of meetings with candidates for his new army-backed cabinet. It is expected to have around 30 ministries and is likely to be unveiled within the next few days.

It will replace Egypt's first democratically elected government under President Mohammed Morsi who was ousted by the military almost two weeks ago. The military has pledged to hold parliamentary elections in around six months.

Earlier, Egyptian reform advocate Mohammed ElBaradei, who led the country's main opposition group, the National Salvation Front (NSF), took the oath of office before interim president Adli Mansour.

Under the 71-year-old Nobel laureate, the secular NSF led opposition to former President Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

According to NSF spokesman Khaled Dawoud, ElBaradei no longer heads the coalition.

"He is now a vice president for all Egyptians," Dawoud said.

ccp/jm (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)

Egypt's interim president has named a new transitional prime minister. He is Hazem el Beblawi, an economist and former finance minister. Mohamed ElBaradei was proposed as deputy president.

Hazem el Beblawi, a 76 year old economist and banker has been named Egypt's interim prime minister. After the removal of the Mubarak regime, he was appointed deputy prime minister for economic affairs and finance minister in a cabinet reshuffle in July 2011.

Acting head of state Adli Mansour also appointed former United Nations nuclear agency chief Mohamed El Baradei as deputy to the president, responsible for foreign affairs. El Baradei's appointment as prime minister was opposed by the hardline Islamist Nour Party.

The Nour Party said it would support Beblawi's appointment, but the head of the party added that it was still studying El Baradei's appointment.

An academic and economist, Beblawi was chairman and chief executive of the Export Development Bank in Egypt from 1983 to 1995 before working for the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia as executive secretary until 2000 and then as an advisor to the Arab Monetary Fund in Abu Dhabi from 2001 to 2011.

The interim government late on Monday issued a decree calling for a rewriting of the constitution, the holding of a referendum on that constitution within four months and, after that, parliamentary elections within six months.

The Muslim Brotherhood flatly rejected that decree and the appointments, demanding the reinstallation of ousted President Mohammed Morsi as Egypt’s democratically elected leader.

'Elephant in the room'

Meanwhile US officials expressed satisfaction with the plan, but conceded that the manner in which the handover had taken place was still a cause for concern. Acknowledging that the transfer had been a coup would mean Washington would be legally obliged under US law to suspend funding to the Egyptian military.

"There's an elephant in the room here," said White House press secretary Jay Carney, adding that it was important "to take the time necessary to evaluate the situation before making such a determination."

Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said Tuesday in a statement carried by state TV that "the future of the nation is too important and sacred for maneuvers or hindrance, whatever the justifications." It appeared to be a reference to previous blocking of nominations for the prime minister post by the Nour party.

Essam el-Erian, a senior member of the ousted Muslim Brotherhood and deputy head of its Freedom and Justice Party, rejected the transition timetable, saying it takes the country "back to zero." Further street demonstrations and protests are expected.

jm/rc (Reuters, AP)

Egypt's new president says pro-reform leader Mohamed Elbaradei has not yet been appointed as interim prime minister despite earlier reports.

A spokesman for interim President Adly Mansour said consultations were continuing.

Officials had earlier named Mr ElBaradei - a former head of the UN's nuclear watchdog - for the post.

News of his appointment had been criticised by the Salafist Nour Party, which said it would not work with him.

It came three days after the army removed Islamist leader Mohammed Morsi following growing public unrest.

The appointment of Mr ElBaradei caused anger among supporters of Mr Morsi, who want to see him returned to power.

"Interim President Adly Mansour met today with Dr ElBaradei but so far there has been no official appointment," Agence France-Presse news agency quoted presidential advisor Ahmed al-Muslimani as saying.

But he added that Mr ElBaradei was "the logical choice" among a list of names being considered, the news agency said.

Mr ElBaradei and other party leaders attended a meeting called by Mr Mansour on Saturday.

He leads an alliance of liberal and left-wing parties, the National Salvation Front.

In a BBC interview on Thursday, Mr ElBaradei defended the army's intervention, saying: "We were between a rock and a hard place."

"It is a painful measure, nobody wanted that," he said. "But Mr Morsi unfortunately undermined his own legitimacy by declaring himself a few months ago as a pharaoh and then we got into a fist fight, and not a democratic process."

Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has been named as the country’s interim prime minister. Meanwhile, sectarian violence has worsened, with the Muslim Brotherhood urging more protests against Wednesday's coup.

Activists in the populist Tamarod movement said on that the Nobel Peace Prize winner ElBaradei would lead the transitional government ahead of elections.

"ElBaradei will head the government in the transitional period, during which early presidential elections will be held," the group announced on its Facebook page.

Official sources confirmed the appointment after members of Tamarod met interim president Adli Mansour, who was himself sworn in as head of state on Thursday following the coup that toppled Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.

ElBaradei, who won the Nobel peace prize in 2005 for his work with the International Atomic Energy Agency, became a prominent opponent of former dictator Hosni Mubarak.

In late June, ElBaradei called for Morsi to resign after one year in office for the sake of national unity.

Tamarod central committee member Aya Hosni told the AFP news agency that "the interim president and Tamarod had agreed on Mohamed ElBaradei's nomination as prime minister."

Hosni said former Interior Minister Ahmed Gamal El-Din would take responsibility for security affairs, while the economist Ahmed al-Naggar would take over as the country's new finance minister.

The news of the appointment of ElBaradei was greeted with cheers among opponents of Morsi at Cairo's Tahrir Square and Ittihadiya presidential palace, but it was rejected by a senior Brotherhood official, Farid Ismail.

"We reject this coup and all that results from it, including ElBaradei," said Ismail.

In Washington, the White House said US President Barack Obama had "reiterated that the United States is not aligned with, and does not support, any particukar Egyptian political party or group."

His officials said Obama had made the remarks while consulting his national security team at his Camp David retreat, where he was spending the weekend.

The US gives some $1.3 billion (1 billiion euros) in military aid each year to the Egyptian army.

Rise of sectarian violence

On Saturday, gunmen shot dead a 39-year-old Coptic priest in Egypt's Northern Sinai's provincial capital, el-Arish. Islamists have attacked churches in six cities since the coup, the Maspero Youth Coalition activist group reported. The priest becomes the 36th person killed since Morsi's removal from office Wednesday.

The Muslim Brotherhood had criticized Coptic Pope Tawadros, the leader of Egypt's 8 million Christians, for giving his blessing to the removal of the president and attending the announcement by armed forces commander General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi suspending the constitution. Security sources accused Islamists of the priest's murder in the coastal city, one of several attacks attributed to Brotherhood loyalists, including firing at four military checkpoints in the region.

Saturday's attacks on checkpoints took place in al-Mahajer, al-Safaa in Rafah, Sheikh Zuwaid and al-Kharouba. The violence follows attacks that killed five police offers in el-Arish on Friday.

The country's clashes have accelerated since Mohammed Badie, the supreme leader of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, defiantly proclaimed that his followers would not give up street action until the toppled president returned to office.

Last year, the Brotherhood and its allies won majorities in both houses of parliament after the toppling of Mubarak, but failed to build a widespread consensus in the country as a whole. On Wednesday, the army declared that Morsi was no longer president and suspended the constitution.

rc/ipj (AFP, AP, Reuters)

The Muslim Brotherhood has called on Egyptians to protest in a "day of rejection" supporting Mohammed Morsi. Violent clashes have occurred around the country since the military overthrew the president earlier this week.

The Muslim Brotherhood organization, which backs Morsi, announced peaceful protests for Friday under the slogan "day of rejection."
Morsi's Islamist supporters accuse the military of staging a coup to overthrow their democratically elected leader after nationwide protests in which millions of people called for his removal. Many opponents of the former president insist there was no coup and that the army simply listened to the "will of the people" and forcibly removed Morsi from office.
The military said "exceptional and autocratic measures against any political group" should be avoided. However, the army has been systematically rounding up top Muslim Brotherhood officials, including its supreme leader General Guide Mohammed Badie for "inciting the killing of protesters," security sources said. Morsi himself was placed under house arrest and prosecutors were investigating charges of insulting the judiciary.
Television stations owned or seen as sympathetic to the Brotherhood were taken off the air and the state printer did not run the organization's party newspaper on Thursday. Morsi and 35 other Brotherhood officials have also had a travel ban imposed on them.
Violent clashes
Several militants publicly warned of violence in retaliation to Morsi's ouster.
A soldier was killed early Friday in an attack by Islamist militants, medics said. Gunmen ambushed several army and police positions with machine gun fire and rockets. Two other soldiers were wounded in the attack.
Clashes in the Nile Delta province of Sharqiya broke out just hours after Chief Justice Adly Mansour was sworn in as Egypt's interim president until new elections can be held.
In the Nile Delta city of Zagazig, the capital of Morsi's home province, 80 people were injured. Witnesses said pro-Morsi supporters were attacked by men on motorcycles, leading to clashes with sticks, knives and bottles before the army intervened to seal off the area.
The military published a statement on its spokesman's Facebook page saying it supported the right to peaceful protest, that violence and civil disobedience would "harm social peace."
Mixed reactions
Military chief General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi announced Morsi's overthrow Wednesday after a year in office. The army had issued an ultimatum for the former president to reach a solution to the country's political unrest, which el-Sissi said Morsi failed to achieve.
Germany called the move "a major setback for democracy in Egypt," while UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said civil rule should return as fast as possible. The Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait, meanwhile, congratulated the country's new interim president. Saudi King Abdullah also thanked el-Sissi for using "wisdom" in resolving Egypt's political crisis and avoiding "unforeseen consequences."
US President Barack Obama notably did not call Morsi's overthrow a coup, but said he had ordered a review of the recently approved $1.5 billion (1.2 million euros) in aid to Egypt following the country's latest political developments.
dr/kms (AFP, Reuters, AP, dpa)

Egypt's army has ousted Mohammed Morsi and named the country's top judge as interim president. A senior member of the president's Muslim Brotherhood group said Morsi was in military custody.

Muslim Brotherhood spokesman Gehad El-Haddad wrote on his Twitter feed that Morsi was placed under house arrest at the headquarters of the Republican Guard along with several other Brotherhood members. He later said Morsi had been separated and taken to the defense ministry.
News agency AFP subsequently quoted a "senior army official" as saying that Morsi "is being held preventively for final preparations."
Cairo's Tahrir Square, the centerpoint of the public protests opposing Morsi, erupted with glee on Wednesday evening when the military announced that it was seizing control after a 48-hour deadline imposed on Morsi to find a compromise expired. People let off fireworks, sang and cheered on hearing the announcement.

Army announces transition
Egyptian Armed Forces Commander in Chief Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi said on national television that head of the country's Supreme Constitutional Court, Adly Mansour, would act as interim president.

He pledged the creation of a national unity government to serve in the interim before fresh elections, adding that a "strong and capable" government would be formed that would have "full capacities."
Al-Sissi also announced the formation of a panel that would look into amendments to the constitution and a law would be drafted to regulate parliamentary elections. The current constitution - drafted in a committee dominated by Morsi's Islamist allies - had been suspended, he said.
Several Islamist television stations, including the Brotherhood's Misr25, were taken off the air immediately after al-Sissi's announcement.
A statement on the Egyptian president's office's Twitter account quoted Morsi as saying that the actions of the military amounted to "a full coup."
Ultimatum expires
On Monday, the Egyptian army had given Morsi 48 hours to reach a compromise deal with the opposition - or face an imposed military solution.
In a last minute statement before the Wednesday deadline expired between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. local time (1400 to 1500 GMT), Morsi himself criticized the military for "taking only one side."
He added that respecting his electoral legitimacy was the only way to prevent violence. In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Morsi called for national dialogue to end the political crisis. Morsi narrowly won a presidential runoff election last June, claiming 51.7 percent of the vote and becoming Egypt's first democratically elected president.

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, on an official visit to Greece, called for calm in Cairo.
"We appeal to all those involved to continue on the path to democracy, to refrain from violence and to place their trust in dialogue," Westerwelle said.
"These are the first five minutes of an historic hour in Egypt," the German foreign minister said, adding that dialogue, a willingness to compromise and equality between political powers were necessary "so that this young democracy in Egypt does not immediately fail, but rather gets a fair chance."
Sporadic clashes were reported in several cities around Egypt overnight. State-run newspaper Al-Ahram reported eight deaths and 343 injuries. The Brotherhood's El-Haddad also said on Twitter that men in plain clothes had opened fire for around 15 minutes on a group of Morsi supporters protesting against the military intervention.

msh,rc/dr (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)

Egypt's army has plans to push Mohamed Mursi aside and suspend the constitution after an all but impossible ultimatum it has given the Islamist president expires in less than 24 hours, military sources told Reuters on Tuesday.

CAIRO - President Mohamed Mursi clings to office after rebuffing an army ultimatum to force a resolution to Egypt's political crisis, and the ruling Muslim Brotherhood seeks to mass its supporters to defend him. 

Egyptian military gives government 48 hour ultimatum

The Egyptian armed forces have given the government two days to reach an agreement with protesters, who want President Mohammed Morsi to resign. The news came shortly after several cabinet members stepped down.

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Thousands of protesters opposing Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi have gathered on Cairo’s Tahrir Square ahead of mass rallies. Many fear the protests could turn deadly.

Waving Egyptian flags as patriotic songs blasted from speakers, protesters chanted "the people want the ouster of the regime" - a catchphrase used during the 2011 revolt that toppled former dictator Hosni Mubarak and brough Morsi to power.

Some protesters wore black bandanas with "Leave, Morsi" written on them, while others held up red cards.

"This is the second revolution and Tahrir is the symbol of the revolution," the protester Ibrahim Hammouda said.

Sunday marks the first anniversary of Morsi's presidency as Egypt's first democratically elected leader.

The group Tamarod, which has led the protest movement against Morsi, announced Saturday it has collected 22 million signatures demanding that the president step down and new elections be held.

Tamarod, which means "rebellion" in Arabic, says Morsi has mismanaged the country.

In a show of solidarity with the Tamarod activists, at least eight members of Egypt's upper house of parliament, the Shura Council, have resigned from their positions.

"We resigned in support of 22 million Egyptians who withdrew their confidence from Morsi," Ihab al-Kharatt, an outgoing deputy, told the AFP news agency.

Obama calls for calm

As tensions between Morsi's opponents and supporters rose on Saturday, a day ahead of the planned protests, US President Barack Obama called on both sides to engage in dialogue rather than violence.

"Every party has to denounce violence," said Obama from Pretoria, where he was meeting with South African officials and a group of youths. "We'd like to see the opposition and President Morsi engage in a more constructive conversation about how they move their country forward because nobody is benefiting from the current stalemate."

Obama also expressed his concern that violent unrest in Egypt could spill over to other nations in the region.

jlw/mkg (dpa, AP, Reuters, AFP)