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Egypt's government to resign Egypt's government to resign
(35 minutes later)
The Egyptian prime minister, Hazem el-Beblawi, has said the government is to resign. Egypt's interim prime minister has announced the resignation of his cabinet, a surprise move that could be designed in part to pave the way for the nation's military chief to leave his defence minister's post to run for president.
"Today the cabinet took a decision to offer its resignation to the president of the republic," Beblawi said in a televised statement. He gave no clear reason for the decision. Hazem el-Beblawi's military-backed government was sworn in on 16 July, less than two weeks after General Abdel-Fatah al-Sissi, the defence minister, ousted Islamist president Mohammed Morsi after a year in office.
Beblawi was appointed after the army toppled President Mohamed Morsi last July following mass protests against his rule. The government's resignation, announced by Beblawi in a live TV broadcast, came amid a host of strikes, including one by public transport workers and rubbish collectors. An acute shortage of cooking gas has also been making frontpage news over the past few days.
It was not immediately clear whether Beblawi will stay at the helm of a new government or step aside for a new prime minister.
Beblawi has often been derided in the media for his perceived indecisiveness and inability to introduce effective remedies to the country's economic woes. He has also been criticised for the security forces' inability to prevent high-profile terror attacks blamed on militants sympathetic to Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood.
The outgoing prime minister acknowledged the difficult conditions in which his cabinet functioned, but suggested that Egypt was in a better place now that it was when he first took office.
"The cabinet has over the past six or seven months shouldered a very difficult responsibility ... in most cases the results were good," Beblawi said.
The goal, he added, was to take Egypt out of a "narrow tunnel" brought about by security, political and economic pressures.
A presidential bid by the popular Field Marshal Sissi has been widely anticipated - leaving him out of the next cabinet will most likely be accompanied by an announcement that the 59-year-old soldier is running.