CAIRO — Egypt's new president has backed
away from an announcement that pro-reform leader Mohamed Elbaradei would be the interim prime minister.
A spokesman for interim President Adly Mansour, Ahmed el-Musilamani, told reporters on Saturday that consultations were continuing,
denying that the appointment of the Nobel Peace
laureate was ever certain.
However, reporters gathered at the presidential
palace were ushered into a room where they
were told by an official to wait for the president
who would arrive shortly to announce ElBaradei's appointment.
A senior opposition official, Munir Fakhry
Abdelnur, tells the Associated Press that the
reversal occurred because the ultraconservative
Salafi el-Nour party objected to ElBardei's
appointment and mediation was underway.
The announcement takes place amid a widening
crisis in Egypt as clashes killed at least 36 people
across the country.
Meanwhile, Egypt increased security forces near
supporters of deposed leader Mohammed Morsi
who were gathered on the streets as worries
grew about prospects for renewed violence after
clashes left at least 36 people dead.
Morsi's supporters were massed in a sit-in
demonstration outside a mosque in a section of
the city where the Muslim Brotherhood has
maintained a stronghold.
There were no reports of major clashes
following a night of street battles, but in the
northern Sinai peninsula, gunmen shot and killed
a Christian priest while he shopped for food in an
outdoor market.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was
linked to the political crisis, but there has been a backlash against Christians just before and after Morsi's ouster.
Attacks have occurred on
members of the minority by Islamists in at least
three provinces south of Egypt.
Christians account for about 10% of Egypt's 90 million
people. Morsi's Brotherhood and hard-line allies
claim Christians played a big part in inciting
protests against the ousted leader.
In the capital, a fraction of the city's normally
heavy traffic was on the streets Saturday amid
worries that violence could flare again after
claiming at least 75 lives in the past week.
The nation's interim president, Adly Mansour,
met Saturday with army chief and Defense
Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, as well as
Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, at the Ittihadiya Presidential
Palace, to consider authorities' next moves.
It was the first time Mansour, who formally
dissolved the parliament Friday, has worked out
of the president's main offices since he was
sworn in Thursday as the country's interim
leader. Mansour, who was appointed by the
military, took over a day after the military
overthrew Morsi, who was the country's first
democratically elected president.
At least 12 deaths were reported in clashes in
Alexandria, the country's second-largest city,
after Islamists opened fire on a rally of Morsi
opponents, a medical services official told the
Associated Press. Police sided with Morsi
protesters in the Mediterranean coastal city.
More than 400 were reported injured
nationwide, the Health Ministry said.
In Cairo, the bloodiest confrontation came as
troops opened fire on protesters outside the
Republican Guards military barracks where the ousted president is being held. A Health Ministry
official told the Associated Press that four people
were killed.
Hundreds of demonstrators had marched to the
site following afternoon prayers, chanting, "After
sunset, President Morsi will be back in the
palace."
At nightfall, a crowd of Islamists surged across
the October 6 Bridge over the Nile River and
clashed with Morsi opponents near Tahrir
Square and outside the state TV building. One
witness reported gunfire and stone-throwing,
and one person was killed, said Khaled el-Khatib,
of the Health Ministry.
Late Friday, military armored vehicles arrived on the bridge and outside the TV station to stop the
fighting, and Morsi supporters retreated.
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