Egypt: Hazem el-Biblawi to be interim prime minister

July 30, 2016

By Samantha Stainburn

Egypt has picked liberal economist and former finance minister Hazem el-Biblawi to be its interim prime minister and Mohamed ElBaradei to be interim vice president, a government spokesperson told the Associated Press.

Also Tuesday, Saudi Arabia offered a $5 million aid package to Egypt, whose economy is in crisis, said the AP. The United Arab Emirates have offered an additional $3 million, according to The Financial Times.

The nation went through much of its foreign reserves during the upheaval that ousted longtime leader Hosni Mubarak two years, and its finances have yet to recover amid ongoing political turmoil.

A few days ago, officials said ElBaradei, Nobel Prize winner and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, would be appointed as Egypt's interim prime minister. On July 6, presidential advisor Ahmed al-Muslimani told Agence France-Presse that ElBaradei was "the logical choice."

But they backtracked after Egypt's second-biggest Islamist group, the Salafist Nour party, raised objections.

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The Nour party said it would support Biblawi's appointment, but was still studying ElBaradei's position, Haaretz reported.

Interim President Adly Mansour has promised to hold elections by early next year, a plan for political transition that the Nour party has approved.

The Muslim Brotherhood, which backs deposed President Mohamed Morsi, has rejected Mansour’s timetable. Essam al-Erian, deputy chairman of the Brotherhood's political wing, said elections next year would bring the country "back to square one."

"We are marching forward with confident steps, with full transparency," Egyptian army officials said today in a statement, according to Al Jazeera. "The future of the country is above anything else."