Compromise candidate appointed Egypt's prime minister

John Bacon @jmbacon | USA TODAY

Economist Hazem el-Beblawi, a compromise candidate supported by a key Islamist party, was named Egypt's interim prime minister Tuesday.

Interim President Adli Mansour also appointed former U.N. nuclear agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei as deputy to the president, responsible for foreign affairs, spokesman Ahmed el-Musalamani said.

Middle East websites said Egypt's hard-line Islamist Al-Nour Party, which has objected to several candidates put forward by the military-backed interim government, had thrown its support behind el-Beblawi's appointment. The party said it was still studying ElBaradei's appointment.

Last week, ElBaradei was a top candidate for prime minister, but Al-Nour rejected him, the websites reported. Al-Nour was the lone ultraconservative party to back the military's removal of Mohammed Morsi from the presidency last week.

Egypt's army chief, referring to Al-Nour, said Tuesday that the military will not accept political "maneuvering." Defense Minister Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said "the future of the nation is too important and sacred for maneuvers or hindrance, whatever the justifications."

Also Tuesday, Saudi Arabia said the kingdom has pledged $5 billion in grants and loans to Egypt's new government. The United Arab Emirates announced a $3 billion package. The countries have been vocal critics of Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood.

El-Beblawi, 76, served as finance minister in the "Revolutionary Cabinet" formed after a 2011 uprising forced out President Hosni Mubarak. Egypt's military council rejected el-Beblawi's resignation in October 2011, when he quit in protest over deadly clashes that left at least 26 people dead. Soon after, Muslim Brotherhood member Mohammed Morsi was elected president. The military ousted Morsi last week.

Al Jazeera reports that ElBaradei, who has the backing of the June 30 Front, a coalition of groups that backed Morsi's ouster, is widely respected in Egypt and received the country's highest honor, the Nile Shas, in 2006.

The appointments came as the Muslim Brotherhood party rejected the five-month transition timetable set out by Mansour, the military-backed interim president.

Essam el-Erian, a senior Brotherhood figure and deputy head of its Freedom and Justice Party, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, rejected the transition timetable Tuesday, telling Al Jazeera it takes the country "back to zero."

The five-month timeline includes amending the draft constitution that was suspended following Morsi's removal, ratifying it in a referendum, and holding parliamentary elections no later than February.