Egypt

There was confusion last night after Mohamed ElBaradei was authoritatively reported to have been appointed as Egypt’s interim prime minister by the acting president, Adly Mansour. He was expected take the country along a military-imposed political roadmap amid vicious strife, including growing sectarian attacks and a rising death toll. However, this was contradicted late last night by Egyptian state television, which denied any such appointment had been made. Opposition from religious political parties seem to be resulting in doubts about his appointment.

As special assistant to the Egyptian foreign minister, ElBaradei served on the negotiating team at the historic Camp David peace talks that led to Egypt's peace treaty and diplomatic relations with Israel. He began his UN career in 1980, and was sent to Iraq in the wake of the 1991 Gulf war to dismantle Saddam's nuclear programme. In 1997, he was chosen as head of the IAEA, a role that made him an international household name and led to confrontations with Washington, first over Iraq and later over Iran. When the US claimed that Iraq was buying uranium in Africa, ElBaradei dismissed the evidence before the UN Security Council as fake. Though he angered Washington by challenging claims that Saddam Hussein was hiding a secret nuclear programme, he was proved right when no nuclear weapons were found after the 2003 US invasion.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei has been appointed as Egypt's new prime minister, the state news agency MENA reported, after bloodshed followed the ouster of the country's first freely elected president. The Tamarod (rebellion) movement, which engineered mass protests culminating in the overthrow of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi on Wednesday, made the announcement on Saturday after talks with Adly Mansour, Egypt's new interim leader. The news of the appointment was greeted with cheers outside Cairo's Ittihadiya presidential palace, where opponents of Morsi frantically waved Egyptian flags and honked car horns. Morsi supporters express anger, call him a US puppet. Al Nour, second largest Muslim Party, says selection violates "roadmap" threatens to withdraw.

"Those who called Mursi's removal this week a military coup were insulting the Egyptian people, who had turned out in their millions to demand his ouster, Sabahi said. He called for former U.N. nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, a prominent liberal politician, to be appointed prime minister for an interim period he hoped would not last longer than six months until an amended constitution was in place. "We have agreed on a roadmap that has a new constitution that will be drafted by a committee to amend the suspended constitution and change the disputed articles, after which people will vote on it in a referendum. Then, there will be a presidential election, then a parliamentary election," he said.

As Mark LeVine just put it in a column for Al Jazeera, “the Egyptian military stands in the way of revolution, and the revolutionaries will again have to take it on directly.” None of this is to belittle the incredible achievements the revolutionaries have secured so far, and it is obvious that activists the world over will continue to follow and support the struggle of the Egyptian people with amazement and the utmost respect, as a shining example of fearlessness and perseverance that inspires us all. But it does mean that “free and fair” elections alone may not be enough to still the people’s immense hunger for bread, freedom and social justice. It may mean that the biggest stand-off is yet to come. And it certainly means that this revolution is far from over yet.

The military has been very careful to present its maneuvers strictly as a response to the desires and aspirations of the Egyptian people. By meeting the demands of the Tamarod movement for the removal of Morsi, the military has for a time secured substantial support among revolutionary masses. The key question, however, is not representational. Whoever assumes the reins of power next will be expected to offer a way out of grinding poverty and unemployment, as well as measures dealing with other political grievances. If the demands of the movement cannot be met, the masses of people will once again be invited to take action. As developments unfold, it remains to be seen whether the military will succeed in using the demonstrations to reinstate a Mubarak regime without the person of Mubarak, or whether the protest movement will use the military intervention to remove Morsi as a stepping stone in advancing the revolution toward realizing the social justice and independence aims of the revolution. What is still lacking in Egypt is a coherent revolutionary voice. The Tamarod movement is made up of tens of thousands