Egypt denies new PM appointment

An Egyptian presidential advisor said here on Saturday that Egypt's interim president Adly Mansour had appointed Mohamed ElBaradei as a new prime minister of the country. "The president has not asked Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei or anybody else to form a new government," Presidential Advisor Ahmad Al-Meslmani told a news conference. But, he admitted that it was not so easy to find a prime minister accepted by all political parties and groups. He added that the interim president had met several public figures, including ElBaradei, Strong Egypt Party leader Abdulmonaem Abulfotouh, Al-Nour Party leader Galal Al-Murra and writer Sakina Fuad. On recent arrests of Muslim Brotherhood leaders, he said the arrests had nothing to do with political issues, but only legal cases. The presidential advisor declined to describe recent military intervention to put an end to the political crisis in the country as a "coup".