Baku-APA. After days of deadlock, Egypt's military-backed interim president named a veteran economist as prime minister on Tuesday and appointed pro-democracy leader Mohamed ElBaradei as a vice president, while the army showed its strong hand in shepherding the process, warning political factions against "maneuvering" that impedes the transition, APA reports quoting Associated Press.
The appointment of Hazem el-Beblawi as prime minister came soon after the interim leadership issued a timetable that sets a fast track for amending the constitution and holding elections for a new parliament within seven months, followed by a presidential election.
The moves — and the statement Tuesday by military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi — showed the determination to entrench a new political system in the face of an campaign by Islamists to reverse the military's July 3 ousting of President Mohammed Morsi. The military removed the country's first freely elected president last week after four days of massive protests by millions of Egyptians demanding he go.
Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood denounced the transition plan, saying it brings the country back to "zero" in the political process and vowed to continue street protests demanding Morsi's reinstatement. A day earlier, more than 50 Morsi supporters were killed by security forces in clashes outside a military installation, heightening the country's polarization between Islamists and their opponents.
Arab countries of the Gulf, which were largely opposed to the Brotherhood's power in Egypt, quickly moved to back the new leadership with promises of help for its economy, wrecked by 2 ½ years of turmoil since the ouster of autocrat Hosni Mubarak. On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates pledged $3 billion in grants and loans to Egypt's new government.
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