MOHAMED ELBARADEI NAMED INTERIM PRIME MINISTER OF EGYPT TODAY -- OR NOT? *UPDATED*

EGYPT HAS A NEW 

*INTERIM* 

PRIME MINISTER 

MOHAMED ELBARADEI 

 (second from left, glasses) 

Smiling at the "Family Photograph" 

of the Expanded G8 

St. Petersburg, Russia, July 2006 

Others, from camera left, Hu Jintao (then president of China), 

Jacques Chirac (then president of France), and 

Paul Wolfowitz (then president of the World Bank) 

At the time of this G8 summit, ElBaradei was Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and 2005 co-winner, with the IAEA, of the Nobel Peace Prize. 

He was mentioned as a potential leader when Hosni Mubarek fell from power, but was passed over.  Now the interim president, Adly Mahmud Mansour, has named ElBaradei the interim prime minister.  Initial reporting and analysis can be found here and here.      

Update:  Someone's having second thoughts; see here. 

Update to the Update (July 9, 2013):  ElBaradei was appointed
"vice president in charge of foreign affairs." Question:  Is there to be another vice president, presumably in charge of domestic affairs, or will that be the job of the finally (?) appointed prime minister, Hazem el-Belawi?  Washington Post account here. 

Five weeks later: Blood on the streets, and ElBaradei resigns, today, August 14, 2013.  From the Reuters dispatch: 

Vice President Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who lent liberal political support to the ousting of Egypt's first freely elected president, resigned in dismay at the use force instead of a negotiated end to the six-week stand-off. 

"It has become difficult for me to continue bearing responsibility for decisions that I do not agree with and whose consequences I fear. I cannot bear the responsibility for one drop of blood," ElBaradei said.