Egypt’s interim president Adly Mansour (centre) and the newly sworn in interim cabinet pose for a group picture yesterday in Cairo.
AFP/Cairo
Egypt’s first interim government since the military toppled president Mohamed Mursi two weeks ago was sworn in yesterday, after deadly clashes between the security forces and the deposed Islamist’s supporters.
The Muslim Brotherhood, the influential movement from which Mursi hails, rejected the 35-member cabinet, with spokesman Gehad El-Haddad telling AFP: “We don’t recognise its legitimacy or its authority”.
None of the newly appointed ministers are affiliated to any Islamist party or movement, with the Brotherhood and the Nour party having both rejected calls for them to participate.
Army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general behind the popularly backed coup that overthrew Mursi, was appointed first deputy prime minister and minister of defence in the government headed by liberal economist Hazem al-Beblawi.
The swearing in ceremony took place after overnight clashes in the heart of Cairo and in adjacent Giza, in which seven people were killed and 261 wounded, health officials said. Hundreds of protesters were also arrested.
It also came after US envoy Bill Burns - the most senior US official to visit since the military coup on July 3 - appealed for an end to the violence rocking the Arab world’s most populous nation.
But within hours of his statement, the Egyptian capital was rocked by political violence for the first time since dozens of Mursi supporters were shot dead outside an elite army barracks early last week.
Two people died in clashes around the central Ramses area near Tahrir Square, while another five were killed in Giza, emergency services said.
A security source cited by state media said 401 protesters were arrested in the Ramses area alone. At least 17 security personnel were injured.
Thousands of Islamists had poured onto the streets to demand the reinstatement of Mursi, who has been in custody since his overthrow.
Some of them blocked the October 6 bridge over the Nile in central Cairo, where security forces fired teargas to drive them back.
The protesters responded by hurling rocks at the security forces, triggering fresh volleys of teargas, with clashes continuing in adjacent Ramses Square and elsewhere late into the night.
Egypt has been rocked by a wave of deadly attacks since the coup, with the latest deaths bringing to more than 100 the number of people killed, according to an AFP tally of confirmed deaths.
The spokesman of Egypt’s interim presidency, Ahmed al-Muslimani, had urged all of the country’s political forces, including the Muslim Brotherhood, to take part in national reconciliation efforts.
But the Brotherhood has refused to play any part in the interim government unveiled yesterday, which included three women ministers, and three Coptic Christians.
Egypt’s new rulers voiced “strong resentment” yesterday at comments by Turkey’s Islamist premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan backing Mursi as the country’s only legitimate president.
Foreign ministry spokesman Badr Abdelatty expressed “strong resentment at comments like these, which... represent a clear intervention in internal Egyptian affairs”.
The diplomatic spat came as the authorities tighten the screws on Mursi’s backers, freezing the assets of 14 top Islamists, including nine Brotherhood leaders.
