Deadly clashes strike Egypt as a new government takes shape By Saad Abedine and Laura Smith-Spark , CNN July 16, 2013 -- Updated 1733 GMT (0133 HKT) EDITION: INTERNATIONAL U.S. MÉXICO ARABIC TV: CNNi CNN en Español Set edition preference Sign up Log in Morsy supporters block a bridge in Cairo
Tuesday that at least seven people died in overnight
clashes across Cairo, interim President Adly Mansour
swore in a new Cabinet.
The unrest and changes in power follow President
Mohamed Morsy's removal from power in a military
coup July 3.
Earlier Tuesday, Health Ministry official Khaled Al-Khatib
was quoted by EgyNews, the nation's state news agency,
as saying that 261 additional people were injured in
violence in the capital.
Meanwhile, 401 Morsy supporters were arrested
overnight in Ramses Square, according to state-run Nile
TV.
Cairo has seen repeated protests since Morsy was
deposed.
The official website of Morsy's Muslim Brotherhood
party said four people were killed and more than 300
injured in the clashes in Ramses Square and near a
downtown Cairo mosque, and that police opened fire
on Morsy supporters while they were taking part in
Ramadan prayers at Al-Fath mosque.
The continuing violence comes as Egypt's interim
government starts to take shape, its members chosen by
the country's military leaders.
Mansour, head of the country's Supreme Constitutional
Court, was sworn in as interim president on July 4.
Hazem El-Beblawi has been appointed the interim prime
minister, while reformer and Nobel laureate Mohamed
ElBaradei was sworn in as the country's interim vice
president for foreign relations.
Nabil Fahmy, former Egyptian ambassador to the United
States, accepted the post of foreign minister, he said.
Ahmed Galal, a liberal economist educated in the United
States and a World Bank veteran, has been appointed as
finance minister, and Hisham Zaazou will retain his post
as tourism minister, the state-run MENA news agency
said.
The appointments represent the first phase of a
transition that is expected to bring presidential elections
next year.
Presidential spokesman Ahmed El-Moslemani told
Egypt's Al-Masriya TV on Tuesday that everyone should
be included in the political process.
"We are not alienating anyone, and we expect most
Islamist movements to take part in reconciliation,
including the Muslim Brotherhood," he said.
Cabinet posts were offered to the Muslim Brotherhood
and the Islamist Nour Party, according to El-Moslemani.
The Muslim Brotherhood, however, refused to
participate.
Ahmed Ali, spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood,
recently responded to Mansour's invitation to include
the group in the transitional period.
"More than 700 of our members arrested, broadcasters
shot down and people killed in front of the Republican
Guard. It is impossible to speak under the current
circumstances," he said. "There is no way to have
negotiations.
"Adly Mansour is a figurehead, a decorative picture to
try and hide the reality that this is a military coup," he
added. "He is no decision-making power."
Morsy, sworn in in June 2012 as Egypt's first
democratically elected president, has been detained
since his ouster.
El-Moslemani said Morsy is "in a safe place, and he is
being treated with the utmost dignity that suits a former
head of state, and when it comes to the legal charges, I
will leave this to the official spokesman of the public
prosecutor."
Egyptian authorities are investigating Morsy and several
leaders and supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood over
accusations of spying and killing protesters. They have
have frozen the assets of more than a dozen people in
an investigation of violence in Cairo.
On Monday, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William J.
Burns emphasized the need for stability and tolerance
as he became the first U.S. official to meet with Egypt's
interim leaders.
Burns urged leaders to end the violence, according to
senior State Department officials, adding that "only
Egyptians can determine their future."
More than 50 people were killed last week after Morsy
supporters clashed with security forces, who opened
fire.
Egypt has long been a close ally of the United States'.
The country gets $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid.
The Obama administration has called for Morsy's
release and has not referred to his ouster via military
might as a "coup." The use of the term could force the
United States to terminate the military aid.
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