In this photo released by the Egyptian Presidency, pro-democracy leader Mohamed ElBaradei, a leader of the National Salvation Front, center left, shakes hands with interim President Adly Mansour after being sworn in as vice president in Cairo, on Sunday. – AP • Foreign, finance ministers announced • Prosecutors quiz Morsi over prison break • 14 Islamist leaders' assets frozen • No group barred from politics: Army chief CAIRO – Egypt's interim prime minister filled senior posts on Sunday in a Cabinet that will lead the country under an army-backed “road map” to restore civilian rule. Hazem El-Beblawi, a 76-year-old liberal economist appointed interim prime minister last week, is tapping technocrats and liberals for an administration to govern under a temporary constitution until parliamentary elections in about six months. He named another liberal economist Ahmed Galal, who has a doctorate from Boston University, as finance minister. A former ambassador to the United States, Nabil Fahmy, accepted the post of foreign minister, a sign of the importance the government places in its relationship with the superpower that provides $1.3 billion a year in military aid. Mohamed ElBaradei, a former senior UN diplomat, was sworn in as vice president, a job he was offered last week. In a speech to a hall full of military officers on Sunday, army chief General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi justified the takeover. He said the president had lost legitimacy because of mass demonstrations against him. Sisi said he had tried to avert the need for unilateral action by offering Morsi the option of holding a referendum on his rule, but “the response was total rejection.” He insisted the political process remained open to all groups. “Every political force without exception and without exclusion must realize that an opportunity is available for everyone in political life and no ideological movement is prevented from taking part,” Sisi said. Mohamed Morsi has been held incommunicado at an undisclosed location since the army removed him from power on July 3. Investigators began questioning Morsi and members of his Muslim Brotherhood on Sunday over their escape from jail during the 2011 uprising. The inquiry launched on Sunday relates to the escape by Morsi and dozens of Brotherhood members from Wadi Natrun prison during the uprising that ended former president Hosni Mubarak's three-decade rule. State Security prosecution service investigators interviewed Morsi at an undisclosed location, the judicial sources said. The public prosecutor said on Sunday that it had ordered the freezing of the assets of 14 Brotherhood and other Islamist leaders. Charges of inciting violence have already been issued against many of the Brotherhood's top figures, although in most cases police have not followed through with arrests. A top US official was heading to Cairo on Sunday for talks with interim government leaders, the first high-ranking administration member to visit Egypt since the ouster of Mohamed Morsi. Under Secretary of State Bill Burns will visit Egypt from Sunday to Tuesday, the State Department said, adding that he would “underscore US support for the Egyptian people.” “In all these meetings, he will underscore US support for the Egyptian people, an end to all violence, and a transition leading to an inclusive, democratically elected civilian government,” the US ministry said in a brief statement. It did not say whether Burns would meet military officials or anyone from the Muslim Brotherhood. – Agencies
