named as Egypt's interim prime minister, his spokeswoman said
Saturday.
News of his appointment came shortly after Egyptian media said Mr.
ElBaradei had been summoned to the presidential palace by Egypt's
interim president, Adli Mansour.
Mr. ElBaradei, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 for his work with
International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview earlier this
week that he had worked hard to convince Western powers of what he
called the necessity of ousting President Mohamed Morsi, contending
that Mr. Morsi had bungled the country's transition to an inclusive
democracy. Mr. ElBaradei also played a major role in the 2011
revolution, which pushed Mr. Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, from
power.
In the interview, Mr. ElBaradei also defended the widening arrests of
Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood allies and the shutdown of Islamist
television networks that followed the removal of Mr. Morsi on
Wednesday by Egypt's generals.
A senior official in the Freedom and Justice Party, the political wing
of Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood organization, told Reuters that he
rejected the appointment.
"We reject this coup and all that results from it, including
ElBaradei," he said at an Islamist gathering in northern Cairo.
Earlier Saturday, Egyptians buried their dead and treated their
wounded while struggling to come to terms with widespread street
violence that left more than 30 people dead and 1,400 injured the
previous day.
Rubble, shattered glass and spent shotgun shells littered
intersections and bridges in Cairo, where battles between Islamist
supporters of Mr. Morsi and those celebrating his removal raged into
the early morning.
The Health Ministry said the death toll since the violence began on
Friday had risen to 36, with about 1,400 wounded nationwide.
Many were shocked by the level of violence and by the abundance of
guns in the hands of the combatants, whose stark disagreement over who
should be ruling the country followed them into hospital wards. A
Coptic priest was shot dead in the northern Sinai Peninsula, and a
video circulated showing what appeared to be Islamists pushing two
youths from a concrete tower atop a building.
The violence was the most widespread since the revolution that toppled
Mr. Mubarak, and many feared that it would make it harder for the
country's deeply divided populace to again accept the authority of a
single leader.
"We have no idea what's going on," said Muhammad Ahmed 27, standing
near the bed of a friend, Muhammad Ali, in Qasr al-Aini Hospital in
Cairo. Mr. Ali had been shot in the abdomen and sprayed with birdshot
in his back during a clash near Cairo University with pro-Morsi
marchers.
"It's a nightmare," Mr. Ahmed said. "I don't understand anything."
The director of the hospital's emergency unit, Hisham Abu Aisha, said
Saturday that the hospital had admitted 83 injured people from the
previous night's clashes in various Cairo neighborhoods. Most had been
shot with birdshot, while others had been stabbed, beaten or hit with
rocks.
Four bodies had been taken to the hospital, and another person had
died in the emergency room.
Most disconcerting, Dr. Abu Aisha said, were the 15 people who had
arrived with gunshot wounds, indicating a presence of guns among
protesters that many in Cairo would have once found unthinkable.
Dr. Abu Aisha said the hardest part was the continuation of street
fights in the sprawling hospital's wards.
"There were dead and wounded from both sides, and they wanted to
finish each other off, so they beat each other inside the hospital,"
he said. "There is no agreement and everyone is sticking to their
views and we can't come up with a plan to move the country forward."
In the surgery ward, Muhammad Ibrahim, 20, recalled seeing someone
shot dead next to him and then watching his twin brother, Ahmed,
collapse after being shot twice in the abdomen in a clash with
pro-Morsi marchers.
"We want there to be stability — not people getting shot every day,"
Mr. Ibrahim said. "We'll let anyone rule as long as there is
stability."
He said both he and his brother had voted for Mr. Morsi, hoping that
he would use Islam to improve life for Egyptians, but they had given
up on him when life got worse for the general population. He reserved
judgment on Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, leader of the armed forces, who
described the military's intervention into politics as a step toward
healing the country.
"We'll see if he does anything good or if he'll say he's with the
people and do nothing, like the others who came before," Mr. Ibrahim
said.
Most disconcerting, Dr. Abu Aisha said, were the 15 people who had
arrived with gunshot wounds, indicating a presence of guns among
protesters that many in Cairo would have once found unthinkable.
Dr. Abu Aisha said the hardest part was the continuation of street
fights in the sprawling hospital's wards.
"There were dead and wounded from both sides, and they wanted to
finish each other off, so they beat each other inside the hospital,"
he said. "There is no agreement and everyone is sticking to their
views and we can't come up with a plan to move the country forward."
In the surgery ward, Muhammad Ibrahim, 20, recalled seeing someone
shot dead next to him and then watching his twin brother, Ahmed,
collapse after being shot twice in the abdomen in a clash with
pro-Morsi marchers.
"We want there to be stability — not people getting shot every day,"
Mr. Ibrahim said. "We'll let anyone rule as long as there is
stability."
He said both he and his brother had voted for Mr. Morsi, hoping that
he would use Islam to improve life for Egyptians, but they had given
up on him when life got worse for the general population. He reserved
judgment on Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, leader of the armed forces, who
described the military's intervention into politics as a step toward
healing the country.
"We'll see if he does anything good or if he'll say he's with the
people and do nothing, like the others who came before," Mr. Ibrahim
said.
Also Saturday, security officials said Khairat el-Shater, the powerful
financier and strategist of Mr. Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood movement,
had been arrested. About 200 Brotherhood members were put on arrest
lists after Mr. Morsi's ouster. Some prominent members have been
released, while others remain detained.
Adli Mansour, the interim president appointed by the military, met
with General Sisi, who is also the defense minister, and with the
interior minister, Mohamed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, at
the presidential palace more than one that had been occupied by Mr.
Morsi just last week.
Mr. Mansour, a former chief justice of the Supreme Constitutional
Court, has spoken publicly only once since his swearing-in, and it
remains unclear when he will select a cabinet and how much power it
will have. Islamist supporters who consider Mr. Morsi's removal a
military coup continued their sit-in in the Cairo suburb of Nasr City
and in front of the officers' club of the Republican Guard, where some
believe Mr. Morsi is being held. The authorities have given no
information on Mr. Morsi's location since his ouster.
"Why are we here today?" a bearded cleric in a white robe asked the
crowd over a loudspeaker.
"Allah!" the crowd yelled.
"What do we demand in this place?" he asked.
"Morsi!" they screamed.
A moment later, he waved a cloth red with what he said was the blood
of one of the four "martyrs" who had been fatally shot by security
forces there the day before.
"We will never surrender," the cleric vowed. "They will try to wage a
psychological war on us, they'll try to trick us."
In the crowd, Ahmed Samir, a mosque preacher from the northern city of
Beni Suef, held a poster of Mr. Morsi above his head and wore a sign
on his chest reading, "Keep your place, legitimacy and the people are
with you."
"We'll stay here until Mr. Morsi is back in the presidential palace,"
Mr. Samir said. "We need freedom in this country, and for everyone to
get what they deserve."
In Washington on Friday, the State Department condemned the violence
and called for restraint.
"We call on all Egyptian leaders to condemn the use of force and to
prevent further violence among their supporters," said Jen Psaki, a
State Department spokeswoman. "As President Obama said, we expect the
military to ensure that the rights of all Egyptians are protected,
including the right to peaceful assembly, and we call on all who are
protesting to do so peacefully."
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