Egypt Appoints New Cabinet

Local Editor

Egypt's interim leader Tuesday swore in the first cabinet since the military ousted the president, giving liberals key positions and naming three women, the highest number ever in an Egyptian government.

The new government is led by Prime Minister Hazem al-Beblawi, an economist. Army chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who ousted Mohammad Mursi on July 3, retains his post as defense minister and also took the position of first deputy prime minister, an additional title given to defense ministers in the past.

The Cabinet of more than 30 ministers does not include any members of the Islamist parties - a sign of the deep polarization over the removal of Mursi, the country's first freely elected president. The interim president's spokesman had earlier said posts would be offered to Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood, but the group promptly refused.
The Brotherhood has said it will not participate in the military-backed political process and vows to continue protests until Mursi is reinstated.

The swearing-in of the Cabinet took place hours after overnight clashes between police and supporters of Mursi left seven protesters dead in the worst outbreak of violence in a week.
Women have a somewhat higher profile, with three ministries - including the powerful Information and Health ministries. Most past governments for decades have had at most two women in them.
The Cabinet includes two Christians.
The Mursi-appointed interior minister, Mohammad Ibrahim, remains in his post, in charge of the police. Nabil Fahmy, who was Egypt's ambassador to the US from 1999-2008, becomes foreign minister.

In a nod to the revolutionary youth groups that engineered the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the massive protests that preceded Mursi's ouster, Mansour renamed the justice portfolio the Transitional Justice and National Reconciliation Ministry and gave it to Mohammad al-Mahdi, a career judge.
At least three senior figures from the National Salvation Front, the main opposition grouping during Mursi's year in office, were included in the government. In addition, the new deputy prime minister in charge of international cooperation, Ziad Bahaeddine, is a member of the Social Democratic Party, which is part of the Salvation Front.

Mohamed al-Baradei, one of the Front's top leaders, has already been installed as Mansour's vice president.
In a first, Mansour also swore in an icon of Egyptian football as sports minister. Midfielder Taher Abouzeid starred in Cairo's al-Ahly club and the national side in the 1980s.
Soon after the swearing-in, carried live on state TV, the al-Nour party criticized the new Cabinet for its lack of inclusion.

"This is a repeat of the same mistake the last government was blamed for, and leads to a totally biased government," al-Nour Party said in a statement. The Cabinet is to run the country as it goes through a transition plan announced last week by Mansour that includes the formation of panels to amend the drafted constitution passed under Mursi, and then the holding of elections for a new parliament and president early next year.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team