Egyptian foreign minister resigns

Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed El-Orabi

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/189420.html

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohammed El-Orabi has resigned and his resignation has been accepted by the head of government.

Prime Minister Essam Sharaf accepted Orabi's resignation late on Saturday, the state-run Nile TV network reported.

Orabi's resignation was announced a day before an expected wide-ranging cabinet reshuffle.

Orabi was appointed in late June to replace former Foreign Minister Nabil el-Arabi, who is now the secretary general of the Cairo-based Arab League.

Sharaf has been consulting with politicians on a cabinet reshuffle he promised last week after Egyptians resumed protests in central Cairo to press for faster reforms and a speedy trial for former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who was ousted in a popular uprising in February.

On Saturday, the Egyptian prime minister picked a leader of one of Egypt's oldest political parties and an economist to be his deputies as part of the cabinet reshuffle.

Sharaf's foreign policy adviser and spokesman, Mohamed Hegazy, said Egypt's prime minister has picked Hazem El Beblawi "to supervise the economic file and the economic group within the cabinet."

Sharaf also chose Ali al-Silmi of the Wafd Party as his deputy "for political development and democratic transformation," Hegazy added.