Opposition Leader ElBaradei Named Prime Minister in Egypt

Former head of UN nuclear watchdog agency will fill interim post
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 6, 2013 12:38 PM CDT
Opposition Leader ElBaradei Named Prime Minister in Egypt
Egypt's leading opposition leader, Mohamed ElBaradei, in a file photo.   (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Mohamed ElBaradei—a name familiar to reformers—has been picked to be Egypt's interim prime minister. ElBaradei, a Nobel peace Laureate and a former director of the UN nuclear watchdog agency, will serve under interim President Adli Mansour until new elections take place. He formerly led the opposition to Hosni Mubarak, toppled by a popular uprising in 2011, and later to the newly ousted Mohamed Morsi.

Earlier this week, ElBaradei defended the recent military intervention to the BBC: "It is a painful measure—nobody wanted that. But Mr Morsi unfortunately undermined his own legitimacy by declaring himself a few months ago as a pharaoh and then we got into a fistfight, and not a democratic process." Last night, at least 30 people were killed in clashes. (More Mohamed ElBaradei stories.)

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